Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 22:23:27 -0500 (EST)
From: dicconf <dicconf at radix.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Sad news: Dick Eney
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On Mon, 25 Dec 2006, Eva Whitley wrote:

<snipped>

> My mother was an unexpected baby (my grandmother thought, at age 46,
> that she was menopausal, not pregnant) so she was not named at birth.
> The attending doctor was told the family named was Valentino (rather
> than Valentine) so when my mother applied for Social Security she had to
> explain why the birth certificate for Agnes Mary Whitley said "Baby
> Valentino."
>
> If memory serves, you can use any name you like as long as it isn't for
> fraudulent reasons, and if you use it consistently, it's legal. IANAL,
> however. --Eva

I believe it's still true.  I know it was in the 1980s when I had occasion
to change the name on my Social Security Card; I did have to insist on
seeing a supervisor, who immediately told the person at the desk that I
was correct and could change it without a judge being involved.

=Tamar