Spelling mistake on birth certificate

[HopeTF]

Hi all,

I received a letter today to say that my name is spelt wrong on the birth certificate of my son. One letter has been missed of my surname. I have to pay £99 to correct it. I’m really upset that myself and my husband didn’t notice on the day, but being two weeks postpartum on no sleep I think it’s a bit unfair that it’s up to us to notice mistakes!

It said on the letter that only a note gets added to the bottom with the correction- I’m absolutely heartbroken that my name will forever be spelt incorrectly on his birth certificate.

Has anyone had this happen to them? Do you really not get a copy with the correction on it?

Thank you.

Does it even matter - do you need it corrected? You have your own ID and passport. When would your name on your child’s birth certificate need to match your ID?

When you travel abroad with your child and immigration asks you to prove your the child’s parent.

I doubt they’d make an issue out of one letter. When I travelled with my kids in August I wasn’t even asked and I have a different surname to them.

Unlikely but entirely possible and probably also depends if your name happens to be on a watchlist

Probably not, but they could do.

Hi. My Christian name was mispelt on my son's certificate. Only found out when we tried to get his first passport which added an interesting time element. The new certificate just showed my correct name, no note at the bottom. But the official register had a note added.

Thank you @purplebeansprouts and @prh47bridge, I didn't know that.

Very interesting. Particularly the £2 fine!

Yes this is what I remember happening when I registered the birth of my youngest. I also registered the death of my dad last year, it was done over the phone so perhaps more chance to get things wrong, but I had to fill in all the details online and tick the box to say all of the spellings and dates were correct.

I don't think "i had had a baby 2 weeks ago and was tired" is any sort of excuse, everyone registering as birth has just had a baby, and spotting your surname has been spelled wrong is not tricky proofreading.

My original long form is incorrect. Thanks to my dad. It is a long standing family joke and gives me a point of interest.

The short form copy is corrected.

Hey! The exact same thing happened to me but it wasn’t the spelling for us (which we meuiciloudly checked) but the registrar put the wrong gender in (he only asked up to check spelling). He assumed my 1 week old boy was a girl due to his name!!
We’ve found out now that since March this year they no longer re-issue a clean certificate but only add a correction at the bottom which again is completely ridiculous as who will ever look at a note at the bottom?
We are currently fighting it and I know of one MP who is actually drafting up a bill to have all corrections be done on the form itself not just as a comment!

I don't think you should pay. I'd tell them it's their mistake & they should correct it.
I had a mortgage for 20 years in a name I'd never been known as. Bank mistake. No-one including me noticed until we sold. Ridiculous.

I used your example @OliveFish to my DP. We had to get an extract of his original birth certificate and suddenly his middle name has disappeared. He is the son of an Army soldier serving in Africa and so have additional complications.

I do hope your MP manages to sort. I thought the press coverage would be something your DC could present as evidence if it could not be changed . Good luck, I wish you well.