Name change on passport only, without US court order okay?

[kicked1102]

Hi,

I have a Chinese name with have 2 first names, for an example my full name would be: X Y Wong (both X and Y are first name).
However, people and government in America always presume that X is my first name and Y is my middle name (especially SSA, caused a lot of trouble when I'm trying to apply for anything using SSN). And I feel extremely uncomfortable about being called X instead of my full last name.

I've already changed my name in home country to include my christian name, example: Aaron X Y Wong, and I'm applying for a new passport in my new name.
So my question is, whether a new name shown on my foreign passport is sufficient for doing a name change on my green card & SSN, or a local(California) court order would be needed?

Many Thanks!

 

[König]

Hi,

I have a Chinese name with have 2 first names, for an example my full name would be: X Y Wong (both X and Y are first name).
However, people and government in America always presume that X is my first name and Y is my middle name (especially SSA, caused a lot of trouble when I'm trying to apply for anything using SSN). And I feel extremely uncomfortable about being called X instead of my full last name.

On your passport, both X and Y are called given names - there is no distinction between first or middle. It is all the matter of terminology. In the USA, it is customary to believe that only first two forenames are important, in other countries all seven forenames might be as important... The bottom line is that the American terminology "first and middle name" logically exclude the possibility of you having two first names. As for being called by first name only and not full last name - it is a US customary tradition, you just have to get used to this. Or you can try introducing yourself as "Mr. Wong" and see if it sticks

 

[kicked1102]

On your passport, both X and Y are called given names - there is no distinction between first or middle. It is all the matter of terminology. In the USA, it is customary to believe that only first two forenames are important, in other countries all seven forenames might be as important... The bottom line is that the American terminology "first and middle name" logically exclude the possibility of you having two first names. As for being called by first name only and not full last name - it is a US customary tradition, you just have to get used to this. Or you can try introducing yourself as "Mr. Wong" and see if it sticks

Thanks for your clarification. But I would prefer to have Aaron as my legal first name, as I've got my name changed in my home country (Passport would have to be changed also). Do you know if a passport with my new name would be sufficient to do the name change in US? Thanks.

 

[Jackolantern]

If the passport mentions that your name previously was [your original name], that might be good enough for US purposes. Otherwise, you should have a court document from your country (with English translation) or from the US, which says your name got changed from [old name] to [new name].