Registering both names was never an intention. In our situation, that AIT knows there are 2 names is purely incidental. Because of one of the complications in our case, we provided the ROC passport as a supporting document because it is an official form of ID that we were able to renew very quickly. So, at that point, the ACS officer simply noted that we should make sure the foreign name is noted in the ROC passport.
So, it wasn’t a matter of registering both names, and had I not provided the ROC passport, the existence of a Chinese name would never have come up. I have no doubt that the ACS officers assumed the child has a Chinese name, I am just saying that a Chinese name was never needed or requested.
FWIW, the romanization of my kid’s Chinese name in the ROC passport is not a standard one, which is not a requirement of the ROC anyway. Personally, I would prefer it was either Hanyu Pinyin or Tongyang Pinyin1, but it seems I wasn’t around when the spelling of the name was decided (I don’t let that bother me)
Note 1. Come to think of it, I think I would have preferred it was Hanyu Pinyin, but this is all moot at this point
Why doesn’t your child’s Chinese birth certificate have a Chinese name? According to Taiwanese law, children of Taiwanese citizens must have a Chinese name.
The child’s name is often decided after the birth. Many parents go to a fortune teller to calculate the most auspicious characters based on the date and time of birth.
The normal Chinese language birth certificate the hospital gives does not have any name, English or Chinese. You write the name on it yourself when you take it to the household registration office.
Ah I see. That’s interesting because in most countries, the name on your birth certificate is the most official one that you must initially register, which all other subsequent documents are based on.
If you ask for an English birth certificate from the hospital, and they oblige, it will have the English name. Taiwan does not really use birth certificates for anything other than household registration initial registration. Ask any Taiwanese if they have a copy of their birth certificate, I bet 99% of them say no.
That’s good to know. And they can do that for Taiwanese children of Taiwanese citizens? Because as far as I know, Taiwanese citizens may only have one name, and it must be a Chinese name. i.e. no second English names like John or Mary (Name Act, Article 1, Paragraph 1). At least not officially.
The “one name” law doesn’t apply to indigenous people or foreigners who naturalized as Taiwanese (Article 4).
Well, officially they have a Chinese name, and a romanization of that Chinese name. Typically, that romanization must match a standard form of romanization like Wade Giles or Hanyu Pinyin, but if you have an official document that shows the child’s official romanization as something else, they will accept it. In my case, I asked the hospital to print an English birth certificate that showed the English romanization of my child’s name as a real English name. I then took this to the Household Registration Office and had that English name registered as the official romanization of my child’s Chinese name.
My kid has birth certificate in both English and Chinese. The Chinese version does not carry her Chinese name, Chinese name was registered along with household registration. The English one was requested by me at the hospital, on which I got to write the English name I want to give to my kid (instead of being transliterated English name derived from her Chinese name)
And guys, those who experienced obstacle to give your kid a “real” English name on the English Birth Certificate can explore another option, as outlined in article 14 of Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act:
Foreign names in passports shall be recorded as follows:
The Roman alphabet shall be used. Foreign names in other scripts shall be converted to the Roman alphabet. The original foreign name in another script may be listed as foreign alias.
If the applicant is applying for a passport for the first time, his or her foreign name spelled in the Roman alphabet, which has been used in any of the following documents, shall be given the preference to be contained :
(1) Identity certificates or official documents issued by the ROC government in a foreign language.
(2) Identity certificates or official documents issued by foreign governments in a foreign language.
(3) Birth certificates issued by domestic or foreign hospitals.
(4) Diplomas and certificates issued by public or private schools established with accreditation by competent education authorities.
Those who had problems getting (3) can try getting documents in (4). Any public or private school (even kindergarten) can issue you any form of certificates, i.e certificate of enrollment in English and request the teacher to include your kid’s “real” English name (annotated with his Chinese name) you want to give on that piece of paper. The certificate must carry school’s stamp for formality’s purpose. The younger your kid is, the more likely that the school will not even bother to see your kid’s passport. After that getting the English certificate or diploma, bring that along to apply for his TW passport and that English name will be treated as his official name on his passport. (instead of being Also Known As)
This is technically incorrect. English is the official language in Singapore and HK, but no laws in those two region stipulate that a Chinese ethnic person must have a “romanized” version English names such as John, Mary or Peter etc. The law only requires that name to be registered in English, whether transliterated from his mother tongue language or not.
Right, Chinese is the official language of Taiwan, that itself is indisputable. But that itself also does not preclude you from having an official romanized English name (should the person wishes to have one) since English is the de facto international language and every passport on this earth carries an English name, regardless of nationality. According to article 14 of Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act, as long as one can provide one of the documents listed in there, Taiwan government would honor your English name on official level, instead of transliterating from your Chinese name.
Bottom line is, in Singapore or HK, a person is free to spell his or her English name however he likes it. In Taiwan, a person needs PROVE that the English name HAS ALREADY BEEN USED in one of the documents listed in passport enforcement act. It just different government system, which has nothing to do with our official language being Chinese.
Update:
After getting the HHR transcript in English with the kid’s German name on it, we used that to apply for the TW passport. We encountered no issues.
From my experience I would suggest for anyone to get the child’s foreign name into the taiwanese documents to:
Get an English language birth certificate with the desired name.
Use that birth certificate to apply for the foreign passport
Use that passport to get the English HHR transcript with the foreign name on it.
Use that to get the TW passport.
Names must always match and make sure the English name is not in the ‘AKA field’.
Sorry about the confusion. Earlier when I said English names were required In Hong Kong and Singapore, I didn’t mean a traditional English name like John or Mary. They don’t make any distinctions between “traditional English names” and Romanized names. They are both just called “English name”.
English names are an official thing in those places because English is their official language. On the other hand, in all the countries I know of where English is not an official language, English names are never used on any official document. Of course, passports require Romanized names (not necessarily English) so most countries require their citizens to use the standardized romanization. For example in Japan, if Tanaka Keiko had an English name “Mary”, the Japanese government would not allow ”Mary” in her passport (at least the last time I checked).
I think the fact that the Taiwanese government already allows some flexibly in this (and the fact that we have an “AKA” option in our passports) is already pretty good.
So isn’t this thread about how to register a “real” English name for your Taiwanese Child? I assume the OP means giving your Taiwanese child a “western” English name (name like John, Mary or Peter etc…) instead of a Chinese transliterated one, if not this thread wouldn’t have been created in the first place.
Since English is not the official language of Taiwan as you mentioned, passport is the only official document that carries a person’s name in English. When a person is applying for a Taiwanese passport, he would be asked to fill in a transliterated English name to be used in his passport UNLESS he can provide documents listed in article 14 of Passport Enforcement Act that prove his or her English name is spelled otherwise, which I believe is the core of this whole discussion here. I used certificate of enrollment issued by my school to apply for my passport, the name on my passport (not AKA) is Eddie. And this is the name I sign with my U.S. stock broker, the name I use to buy U.S. life insurance. The name Eddie is recognized on official level in every country is what matters in this thread.
By the way, Taiwan will be having its new national ID in near future. The new ID will carry both English and Chinese names on it so I believe we will soon be having an English name registration system since I can see more people wanting to register their English name such as Peter, John Mary etc on their official national ID, not sure how the system would work though.
As for Japan, it’s possible to have legal name like Mary on her passport. Please see reference 3 of the link from MOFA of Japan, though I don’t think any average Japanese person can have it unless he or she has other English documents to prove his English name, like how Taiwan does it. If a Japanese woman marries an American and later on gives birth in the U.S., the child would most likely have a western name and surname on her U.S. birth certificate (Let’s just pretend it’s Mary Johnson), which would later on be adopted in her Japanese passport application. If let’s say the child’s Japanese name is Keiko and surname Tanaka, on her Japan passport under name it would appear as Keiko (Mary), and under surname it would show as Tanaka (Johnson). Both transliterated name and Western names are given legal standing status instead of being AKA, which is not recognized everywhere.
I see. So Japan is similar to Taiwan in that they offer some flexibility in your official English name in your passport. But still, my main point is that they don’t allow English names in their birth certificate under normal circumstances, like they do in HK and Singapore. And the main reason is that the official language of Japan is not English.
In HK and SG, your English name is your official legal name because English is the official language, and your Chinese name (in Chinese characters) is optional, and unofficial. Even though the Chinese name is printed on ID cards, it doesn’t enjoy legal status. Legal documents and contracts require English names and signatures.
Ya, I am not sure about how naming a child in Japan works. However, in Taiwan I believe all you have to do is to get one of the following documents:
(1) Identity certificates or official documents issued by the ROC government in a foreign language.
(2) Identity certificates or official documents issued by foreign governments in a foreign language.
(3) Birth certificates issued by domestic or foreign hospitals.
(4) Diplomas and certificates issued by public or private schools established with accreditation by competent education authorities.
Use one of the documents to apply for TW passport and get your child’s English name locked in on his passport. THEN use that passport to apply for his English birth certificate if the hospital insists on seeing the child’s passport. I know this sounds extremely stupid, but guess this is how it works in Taiwan.