Middle initial on birth certificate

[Drew927]

Has anyone submitted their birth certificate which had your fathers middle name shown only as the middle initial instead of the full name? Was it accepted?
This is the case with mine and I've read that the NY consulate is having an applicant change their birth cert because the middle name is missing.
I'm wondering if the middle initial is acceptable.
Drew

[troycjaco]

hey drew,
my grandpa's birth certificate only had his first and last name it. Then on his marriage certificate it had his middle initial "m" and on his death certificate it had his middle name written out "michael".

If your father's name is consistant throughout the rest of your documents, i'm sure youll be fine. By that i mean, his first and last name match up perfectlly. But if his middle name is coming up diffrent all over, you might have a problem.

What they don't want is inconsistant name matches.

And my advice would be don't make any corrections to your documents unless they are huge errors. Like last names completely misspelled, date of births completely off, mother and fathers' names not matching up. Its very costly, have them tell you to fix the little errors.

[johnnyonthespot]

hey drew,
my grandpa's birth certificate only had his first and last name it. Then on his marriage certificate it had his middle initial "m" and on his death certificate it had his middle name written out "michael".

It sounds like Michael was not his true middle name, but a saint's name taken when he received the sacrament of Confirmation in the Roman Catholic church.

Many people mistakenly used there saint's name in legal documents; I admit that for decades my driver's license, my social security card, and other documents showed by middle name as Peter even though there was no such name on my birth certificate. I corrected several of these before submitting my jus sanguinis application; I think an "added" name is potentially a more egregious problem than the substitution of an initial for a spelled-out name.

For what it is worth, however, the Italian bureaucracy is a stickler when it comes to name consistency. From what I have read, on all legal and state documents, an Italian is expected to give his name in exactly the same manner as it appears on his/her birth record. Also, signatures are to be complete ("Henry Robert Smith", not "Henry R. Smith" or "Henry Smith") and consistent in wrtiing style to the extent possible.

[Drew927]

Thanks, my dad's middle name is Raffaelle and the initial R is used consistantly throughout all of my documents wich required his name. (marriage, birth and death records) So i guess i should be ok.

[sceaminmonkey]

when the consulate asked me to get it corrected he gave a smirk and asked jokingly when my father stopped using his middle name. the only document that had it was his birth certificate. since my father is alive and well all I needed to submit for him was his marriage record birth record and our birth records which did not show his middle name. I honestly dont know what what to tell you . I woudl wait and see what they say but I will ask that hypothetical question for you.

[ForzaItaliaPgh]

I also would wait and see, no sense making the changes if you don't have to. My docs are all pretty good, except my GGF used his baptismal name initial ("L") for "Luigi" (or on the naturalization cert - "Louis") instead of his given middle names, Giovanni Paolo. I could try changing them, but as his first and last name are consistent and as he didn't anglicize his first name - I think I have a shot at getting a pass. I will change things if I have to, but I hate to mess with the docs, I mean that is how he wanted his name to appear, afterall.

[sceaminmonkey]

I would correct whatever is possible honestly. If you have the money do it now . I think tenconsulate appreciates the effort and you will save yourself time of you need to.

[jennabet]

Parents in Italy have a lot of rights. The names they choose for their children are always respected. Therefore, I can well understand the consulate making fun of the fact that your father stopped using his middle name (meaning the middle name is not important so why did he have one in the first place).

While living in Italy, my own neighbor made fun of the fact that my Italian parents chose an Anglo first name for me. His wife heard the comment and told him to be quiet. Remember, consulate personnel and Italians living in Italy today were never immigrants. They just don't understand how people claiming to be Italian could ever deviate from Italian customs and traditions as observed in Italy.

[gottogetit]

Still working on my issue. L.A. consulate told me (e-mail) that my fathers name must match the name on my birth cert. don't think theres any way around it.... my fathers alive.

never thought that my father took on the baptismal/confirmation name as his first name. going to try and get his records to see if Michael was his confirmation name.

Thaks Carmine for the idea.