Name at birth

Name at birth

The name at birth is the name a child is given by his or her parents, according to a generally universal custom, and legal requirement.[1] What happens subsequently about this name has a substantial cultural component.

Where births are officially registered, a name entered into a birth certificate may by that fact alone become a legal name. The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (given name plus family name at least), or perhaps from baptism, persists to adulthood in the normal course of affairs, with some possible changes (such as concerning middle names, uses of diminutive forms, adoption, choice of surname if parents divorce or were not married). Matters are very different in some cultures where a name at birth is only a childhood name, rather than the default choice for later life.

Birth name is a term now sometimes used for maiden name (name before marriage of a woman, in cultures where a married woman's name customarily changes), by those who find maiden name to be an old-fashioned usage with the wrong connotations. By extension to men, birth name or now sometimes birthname can mean name at birth, or possibly (and less precisely) the more elusive concept of real name (i.e. name before taking a professional name such as stage name, pen name, ring name, or an assumed name/alias name/nickname, or some recognised name change process which de jure alters names).

Notes

  1. ^ Canadian legal requirement

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Name change — For name changes within the Wikipedia community, see Wikipedia:Changing username. For name changes of places rather than persons, see Geographical renaming. Name change certificate issued by Christian X of Denmark in 1917 Name change generally… …   Wikipedia

  • Name — For other uses, see Name (disambiguation). Ceremonies, such as baptism, can be used to give names. A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a …   Wikipedia

  • Birth of the Cool — Compilation album by Miles Davis Released 1957 …   Wikipedia

  • Birth order — can affect human psychology, though many supposedly formative effects of birth order are instead related to other factors. Birth order is defined as a person s rank by age among his or her siblings. Birth order is often believed to have a… …   Wikipedia

  • birth — W2S2 [bə:θ US bə:rθ] n [Date: 1200 1300; : Old Norse; Origin: byrth] 1.) give birth (to sb) if a woman gives birth, she produces a baby from her body ▪ Patsy was celebrating last night after giving birth to twins. 2.) [U and C] the time when a… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Birth — (b[ e]rth), n. [OE. burth, birth, AS. beor[eth], gebyrd, fr. beran to bear, bring forth; akin to D. geboorte, OHG. burt, giburt, G. geburt, Icel. bur[eth]r, Skr. bhrti bearing, supporting; cf. Ir. & Gael. beirthe born, brought forth. [root]92.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Birth to Twenty — (BT20) is Africa s largest and longest running study of child and adolescent health and development, and one of the few large scale longitudinal studies in the world. The study is a birth cohort study, and in 1990 began to track the development… …   Wikipedia

  • birth control and contraception — Birth control, or ‘birth planning’ (jihuashengyu), is one of the more controversial issues in contemporary China, entangling state policy and cultural mobilization. From the establishment of the PRC, a large population policy was favoured by the… …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

  • Birth (disambiguation) — Birth is the process in animals by which an offspring is expelled from the body of its mother.Birth may also refer to:In filmThere are a number of films that use the name Birth in their title:* The Birth of a Nation , a silent propaganda film *… …   Wikipedia

  • Birth — ist der Name eines Stadtteils von Velbert im nordrhein westfälischen Kreis Mettmann, siehe Velbert Birth einer Ortschaft im niederrheinischen Kreis Viersen einer Ortschaft der Stadt Hennef (Sieg), siehe Birth (Hennef) eines Films des britischen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”