Different Chinese and English last name

Hello,
I’m Italian, my wife is taiwanese and we are expecting a baby. When. I got married, I had to chose a Chinese name and last name for myself, but of course it doesn’t represent my real last name.
As my baby will have Taiwanese and Italian (western) name, I’d like him/her to have my last name as Western and my wife’s last name in the Chinese name. Do you know if it’s possible to have have 2 different last name?

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Spanish here. My daughter has her mother’s surname in Chinese. For the Spanish name, she has my first surname as her first surname, and her mother’s surname as her second surname.

So, it’s possible.

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Thanks for replying… Does it need to have 2 last name in the Spanish passport, or was it your choose?
Does it need a special procedure or this simply the name you applies for?

Yes. My kids have their chinese name with their mom’s last name on their taiwanese passport.

Their english birth certificate and passport have my family name with their english name.

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You have to make sure that the place where the child is born draws up a birth certificate in English with the right first name(s) and the right last name. Verify this in advance by asking them. Many places will have no problem giving the child any English first name and an English last name that matches one of the parents’ English last names. Make sure you can prove that you are married.

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It may depend on where your child is born. Presuming that is in Taiwan then in my experience their is no name recorded on the Chinese language birth cert. You can record an “English” name on the English language birth cert that is issued by the hospital. Take that to the local public notary to get a government stamp on it and it is then a legal document that can be used for getting passports etc.

Congrats on the new baby! :tada:

Yes, it is possible.
We did that with all our three kids, and plan to do the same with the one coming up.

As @TaipeiGuy2000 mentioned, try to get the English birth certificate at the hospital with the name you plan to give already printed on it. It is not a must-have requirement, but it will help to get other documents later in their life.

When you are going to register the baby at the household registration office they’ll ask if the child will have mom’s or dad’s surname in Chinese and what’s their English name. You can present the birth certificate then.
They will also ask for the pinyin translation of their Chinese names, so get that prepared too.

I get your point about the Chinese last name not representing your original last name. That’s why I changed my surname to my wife’s one after getting married. If it’s going to be something else anyway, at least let’s make it the same for the whole family! :grin:

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That’s because some people wait until after the baby is born to choose the name (fortune telling or something). But if you already decided it, you can have the Chinese names on the Chinese birth certificate too.

Oh yeah, I forgot that! You’ll have to notorized it before presenting it to the HHR office.

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Ah really, I didn’t know that, we had our name picked out in advance but wound up with the no name birth cert anyway (presumably because we didn’t know that.)

Wasn’t too bad a step just took a couple of hours between finding the building and then the right office and filling the form etc.

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I cross out the word ‘English Name’ and write foreign name on all the applications. I think it’s time to stop calling it an ‘English name’.

Recommend you check out this guide I made a few years ago:

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We have two surnames in Spain, and as far as I know all other Spanish speaking countries too, also Portugal and Brazil. Also, nobody change their surnames when they get married.

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The guide posted above is very helpful and what I went by. Just need patience to read through it.
On my children’s U.S. passports it’s only their English names.
Then I used that U. S. Passport as proof when applying for Taiwan passports which now have their Chinese character names first with their English names (as from U.S. passports) right below that Chinese character name.
Finally at the bottom under ALSO KNOW AS…I used the romanization of the Chinese character name.
So if you get the Italian passport first then you should be able to establish that name into the Taiwan passport and then you’ve basically officialized the names.
I never used the kids English names on the household registration. I think it’s official enough on the Taiwan passports.
So basically the passport would be something like this

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Yes my son has my western name on his Australian passport. His ARC had his western name and his Chinese name in Chinese characters.

He now has Taiwan passport using only Chinese name on it which the surname is his mothers family surname not my Chinese surname. When the child is born have the Italian name for your child and the Chinese name on the birth certificate.

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I never took my sons birth certificate to get notarized. Was not necessary.

I guess that depends on what you need to use the birth cert for. In my son’s case our embassy advised us that they needed a state authenticated cert to issue a passport.

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That makes two of us. My chinese last name is the same as my wife’s.

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Not required for most countries. Anyway I had 10 original birth certificates written. Saves requiring authentication.

Well… I did! :grin:
And so did @BigDave :wink:

Interesting, which countries are most countries?

For Italy I believe you do need it based on a quick Google. I believe the OP is Italian.