Dual Nationality. Two Names

Through my work I’ve met lots of Chinese children who have a name in their own language, and they have a British name too.

Are you imagining something like the practice that is sometimes common among (for example) Chinese students in the uk to choose an ‘English name’ to be known as?

or a more formal dual name thing?

the first one is easy to achieve because, for the most part, people don’t need to use the ‘official’ name kn your passport.

as an aside, I once taught a class of masters students where it seemed that all of the young Chinese women taking the class had decided to go by Maggie. It was far more confusing to try to teach 7 maggies, than it would have been to have me and the other students just learn their real names. No matter how horrible my pronunciation would have been. 🤣

I'm not sure I quite get what you mean. Is it

1. baby called Jane on British passport and Janna on Passport of country B
2. Baby called Jane by British family and Janna by family of country B? Name in both passports is Jane.
3. Baby called James but family in Spain pronounce it Khamez (or thereabouts)?

One of my DC has a name that exists in both parents' languages but pronounced differently in each (option 3). It comes from Country B so official version is not the British pronunciation. The speakers of each language pronounce it their way in each naturally and there's no problem. It's written the same way but there's an accent on it in Country B. The UK passport office didn't put the accent on (guess because we don't have them). We've had no problems with that.

But...

I'd like to underscore what TigerLily said above about the names lining up in the passports and official docs. That is essential. You have to declare other nationalities on the passport form and copies of the other nationality's passport. You can get into an awful vicious cycle if they don't match up and each country will only allow a name change/new passport if the other passport is changed first. I encountered this myself and managed to get out through a technicality. I met someone else though who had to renounce a nationality because of this. The name needs to be exactly the same on every document from birth cert/registration of birth onwards. What people call the child in RL is not so much of an issue in reality.

My FIL suggested we used Joseph/Yusef as a name. So he would have called his Yusef. We didn't do this though. Our chosen name has an alternative spelling that we don't use, but some relatives use a subtly different pronunciation. He's too young to register potential annoyance at this though.

DD's friend is Eva. School pronounce it with a long 'e' snd parents with a short 'e' more like 'ever'. Again this is the same name with clearly linked pronunciations.

My children have first names in my home country language but slightly anglicised for English audiences so for example we've removed the accents on letters. They then both have two English middle names and my husband's English surname.

So: My Home Country First Name, British Middle Name, British Middle Name, British Surname

Also, just to make you aware you can't put accents (eg: é/ê/ë) on passports.

My kids have middle names in one passport but not in their other. But, my understanding is that the UK government is cracking down on names not aligning, which is why when you apply for a British passport they ask for copies of any other passports you have to ensure the names are aligned.

So, basically, I wouldn't burden my kids with this and just make sure that they have the same name in all passports. Because you are just giving your kids a lot of headaches in the future.

(sorry, in that example Country B is meant to be their father's country, and Country C the country we all currently live in.)

My children have British passports, and I am British.

Their father comes from another country with a different language.

We live in another country, with a third language.

My children have English first names which are easy enough to pronounce in the languages of countries B and C.

They have two middle names, one English and one from their dads language.

They then have their nicknames in the language of Country C which have become what they're mostly known by.

So it's like this:

English first name, English middle name, Country B middle name, father's surname (from country B)

Known as nickname day to day (Country C's language)

A bit complicated!

As an expat I know many multicultural families and none of them have given their children two first names. I've never heard of anyone doing this. It seems to be either:

• chose a name that works in both countries (for example, my Korean/British friend has a Leah which works in both languages, my British/Chinese friend has a Miya which works in both languages).

• Chose a name from one country, which is either rare or unknown in the second country but can be easily pronounced. Like my children.

I am following with interest as I have the same question...