At birth, my child was assigned an English name that was a Pinyin version of their Chinese name.
I need to change this to his actual English name so that he can have a foreign passport that matches my family name.
Has anyone successfully changed their child’s English name at the household registration office, and if so could you please share the procedure and what documents I will need to take along.
Hi
I don’t know if this can help you
But I know you can add a line 'also known as … ’ on the passport
That is useful for people with different names and spellings
It can be done. My wife went to HHR Office and did it. So I don’t know the procedure.
If they refuse to change the Pinyin version, at least get a remark in there that your child is also known as under the other English name.
When applying for the foreign passport it should be enough that the name is mentioned in the HHR. You can explain that in Taiwan the child is required to have a Chinese name and the foreign passport should be for the correct English name.
Good luck.
Update - our HHR office told us it’s not possible to change the English name. It has to be a Pinyin version of his Chinese name.
How can I argue against this? Can anyone point to a relevent law or something?
Edit: the law in English
https://www.moi.gov.tw/english/english_law/law_detail.aspx?sn=335
I tried getting a dual passport using his “also know as” name and it was rejected, my country only looks at the official English name.
Here is the law in Chinese, does “歸化” (naturalization) in article 4 applies to foreign kids?
外國人、無國籍人於歸化我國取用中文姓名時，得以原有外文姓名之羅馬
拼音並列登記，不受第一條第一項規定之限制。
It doesn’t clearly state that this applies to dual-citizen children.
Maybe foreigners count as an “ethnic minority”, or maybe dual-citizen children are technically “naturalized” to R.O.C at birth.
The issue is that our HHR office has already said no, so I’m not sure how to progress this further. I can’t exactly change to a new HHR office.
I’ve had this exact situation, and it turned out to be easy.
In my case my kid had a Taiwanese passport with only his Chinese name (and the Pinyin version of it). The British passport office now requires that all passports have matching names. Meanwhile, I had an English-language birth certificate from the (Taiwanese) hospital which the British passport office wasn’t sure about, since it’s not very official.
The solution to both was just to go to the Taiwanese passport office (not the HHR) with his English-language birth certificate, and add that name to his passport as an “also known as” field. The British passport office was then happy to accept it, since the names matched and it demonstrated that his birth certificate was considered official in Taiwan.
He tried
It also worked with German authorities. But I got a German birth certificate first with the proper name and all. Was easy to guide the official since they had no clue what to do, because it never happened in the area I was registered in Germany.
Then I got the German passport with the German birth certificate.
For our first child I had time to make sure everything is in order and the proper English name was put in place when registering at the HHR office.
With our second my wife screwed up and we had to face this problem. But we were able point to their inconsistency for one child vs the other.
The main issue is obviously that you run into problem getting a foreign passport with the proper name because of this.
If anything fails then just register with the wrong name and have it changed later, if your country allows name change?!
Oops! I missed that. But I suspect the passport office is still the key. The problem isn’t getting them to add his English name, but getting them to remove the existing pinyinized name. When I went they gave me the impression that it was possible, but would be more hassle than just adding a second name.
Thanks, but that didn’t work for me. It also means that your child has 2 distinct English names, which might cause a headache when booking flights and entering/exiting a country.
Currently my son only has 1 English name in both of his passports, but it’s the incorrect pinyin one.
What documents did you need to give the HHR office for the first child? Did you give them the German birth certificate? I only have an English birth certificate issued by the Taiwan hospital where he was born.
We only had the Taiwan hospital birth certificate with the English name in it.
His British passport has only his English name. The Taiwanese one has both but it doesn’t faze Taiwanese immigration, and I doubt he’ll be using it anywhere else.
Did you get an English birth certificate from the hospital where your child was born? That’s where you initially assign their English name. Then you can add it to things like their passport and the household registration (as an alias). It was only with all 3 that I could get their English names on my kids’ foreign passports.
If you got an English birth certificate and wrote the pinyin in there… ouch? I don’t know. They probably won’t issue another one with a different English name.
Hi, yes I have the birth certificate with his real English name.
I also already have it as an alias in his Taiwan passport. However, I want to change his official English name to the one on his birth certificate, and remove the pinyin version (i don’t even know where that came from?) from both his household registration and from his passport.
Several posters on here have said that their kids have completely different Chinese and English names, so it’s definitely possible.
Ah, I see, but this may be one of those “your mileage may vary” cases because the HHR and passport offices both told us they under no circumstances could remove the pinyin from those documents.
I guess you have to get really lucky with who you find when you go in to apply.
I actually don’t remember if we removed the Pinyin name from HHR for the second child. I have to check out HHR when I get home.
Found a scanned copy in my digital folder of English HHR record.
The english name [Name in English] for both our kids in HHR is
Pinyin name (English name)
in the same row. Not under notes
Same applies for my entry in HHR as their father.
Yup, exactly that. ^