Birth Certificate- why only 1 name?

[Wonderi]

My birth certificate only has my dads name on it.

All of my siblings have both my parents name but I only have my dads.

I asked my parents and they said that my mum was there but they just didn’t put her name on it - which doesn’t make sense.

Does anyone have any ideas?

This was about 33years ago.

My DH use to work for the General Register Office and he says the mother's name has to be on there unless it's an abandoned baby and the mum is unknown.

Sounds like this must just be a mistake on the part of the registrar. The system they use nowadays wouldn't allow them to continue without adding the mother's details.

You should be able to get it corrected by contacting the GRO.

I’ve had 3 copies as I’ve needed them for job applications or passport.
My mum lost the first one and then I moved home and lost the second one.

The last one was sent to my address and so it’s definitely not been faked by my parents but that is something that I hadn’t thought of and can now rule out.
If I hadn’t had it delivered to my address then it’s something that could have been a possibility.

I have asked both of my parents why the name isn’t on there and they just seem to shrug it off.
My mum said she was there so she doesn’t know why her names not on it and my dad said he registered me alone as that was the done thing.

My parents tend to lie, especially my mum, over even minor things and so getting to the bottom of something like this is so frustrating.
In most cases, if someone said they were there then you’d just accept it and put it down to an error.

I know my father had at least 1 affair but I don’t know if my mum would raise a baby that wasn’t hers.

It is maybe worth me doing one of these genetic tests to determine my family tree as I do find that interesting anyway.

Is it a full long form certificate?

Yes, a man definitely couldn't register a birth if he wasn't married to the mother. And I agree a man couldn't just walk in and register a birth and not give the mother's name.
The hospital had definitely informed the Registrar directly of my child's birth in 1993 because when we went there they had a list of the births, not sure if that was the case in 1991.
I can't see how a fake certificate could be produced unless the parents are expert forgers, official copies are on special paper and it would be clear if it had been doctored.

Is she definitely your mother?

Did you see recently a few cases of the wrong sex being put on the birth certificate? (Out of human error, rather than baby being intersex or anything).

Mistakes do happen.

Okay well then it’s definitely an admin error then. You can apply to have it rectified if you want to as it might be useful for future generations if they want to trace their ancestors. But you don’t have to and you’ve made it 33 years without it being an issue.

You've never worked with abandoned babies have you. Its quite possible for the mum not to be known but incredibly rare. It does happen, a recent case was in the news about a year ago.

Afghani birth certs don't mention the mother. Just the father and his father.
Women don't matter enough to feature.

Yes but as you say very rare and usually the birth mum is tracked down somehow as abandonment cases usually make the news. In all other circumstances you can have no dad on there but not no mum.

The birth mum is not always tracked down but I was correcting your certainty that there couldnt possibly be an unknown mother. This is not the case.

There couldn't possibly be an unknown mother with a listed father.

Well yes but I said usually and in any event there would never be a case where the father is known and named but not the mother

Yes exactly. They wouldn’t allow a dad to register a birth if he claims that he doesn’t know who the mother is. Just wouldn’t be possible.

Definitely an admin error OP. Regardless of any circumstances surrounding a birth the mother is always on the BC. Years ago when most babies were born at home apparently mistakes were rife as the dads apparently went to register the birth while the mum recovered (and often after the dads had wetted the baby's head lol) and got dates and names muddled up.My dad celebrated his birthday on x date until he got a passport as an adult and his bc had a date of three days later but we reckon it's the date of registration not his birth. Locally lots of similar stories but I'm talking about the 1930s and 40s and not relatively recent times. One old neighbour as an adult discovered that he had no birth cert. It wasn't until he went to apply for a mortgage that he discovered he didn't actually exist. His then elderly dad claimed he had definitely registered him.

Oooooooh! Maybe your mother was a member of the royal family and her name was suppressed so as not to cause a scandal. You could be the rightful heir to the throne OP.

Deep curtsey just in case.

😁

My friend is a foundling-I must ask her about her birth certificate...