my own name fixing experience
I agree with SunnyJ. Also, San Jose doesn't do name changes, either.
I am in the same situation as volt. My story is basically that my name was translated from another language in two different ways -- they are all the same names, just under different "translation philosophies". So I have THREE names:
Name A: my green card spelling, and a godawful one to boot.
Name B: my preferred name, which I used on many school & financial records; fortunately I have a birth certificate certified translation with that spelling.
Name C: a typo of Name A, used on my advanced parole document from 10 years ago.
I very, very much wanted to have my naturalization certificate in Name B!! So, here is how I filled out my N-400,
Part 1:
Question A (current legal name): used
Name B. Attached a copy of birth certificate and the certified translation to N-400, with a letter explaining that it is my preferred name. I would recommend folks attach an ORIGINAL certification of translation, BTW, not a copy. Also bring the original to interview.
Question B (name on GC): used
Name A (no choice there, really).
Question C (all names you ever used): listed
Name B. At the interview, I asked the IO to add
Name C because I forgot to put it on there originally.
Question D (do you want to legally change your name?): YES, to
Name B.
When I went to the interview, we spent the first 5-10 minutes just trying to resolve my 3 different names! In the end, the IO struck out Question D because we can't do legal name changes in San Jose. Additionally, because my birth certificate in my file has Name B in the translation, and because I put Name B for Question A, that is what will appear on the naturalization certificate -- no need to do a name change of any kind.
The conclusion: volt, don't worry what the GC says. Put down the name you want ON YOUR NATURALIZATION CERTIFICATE in Question A, Part 1 of N-400. Make sure you submit proof of it with your N-400 (i.e your birth cert) and bring that proof to interview. This way you don't need to do a name change.
You can read my interview experience here BTW:
http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=301821
Now, if your birth cert and GC names are different from what you want your name to be in the end, well that's a different story...