agreement between Chinese birth certificate and Canadian passport

[toby]

I am I contact with a small group of couples in China, in which one partner is Canadian, the other Chinese. We help each other with immigration matters, like PR visas – much as people in this forum do.

One couple is getting anxious about what names to give their impending baby.  The child will be born in China (born to a Canadian father, who works in China, and a Chinese mother.) The mother has Canadian PR.

Normally, Chinese birth certificates are issued in Chinese only, which means that the baby's name would be stated in Chinese characters too.

Yet Canada requires the baby's name to be printed in English (roman) letters for purposes of the Canadian passport.

Some names can translate from Chinese to English, and vice-versa. But other names cannot.  For example, the Chinese has characters for “David”, and the pinyin on the baby's Canadian passport would be "Dawai". But there are no Chinese characters for “Frank”, for example, and almost certainly no Chinese characters for the couple's family name.

The couple wants the same name to appear on the English translation of Chinese birth certificate(Chinese document) as will appear on the baby's Canadian passport, to avoid problems verifying that the baby in the birth certificate is the same as the baby on the Canadian passport.

If anyone has had experience in this matter, I'd love to hear from you. Please PM me.

[newtone]

Can't they change the name of the baby? so that its easily translation to a David Frank or John

[steaky]

Since there is chinese translation for the german city of "Frankfurt", so there is Chinese characters for "Frank".  Search baidu.com.  Sorry, I don't use pinyin.

[toby]

Can't they change the name of the baby? so that its easily translation to a David Frank or John

I suppose they could change the given name(s), but not the family name to be used. I guess they could use the Chinese family name, instead ot the Canadian parent's name.

[toby]

Since there is chinese translation for the german city of "Frankfurt", so there is Chinese characters for "Frank".  Search baidu.com.  Sorry, I don't use pinyin.

Many names do translate into Chinese, so they could be printed in Chinese characters on the birth certificate and in English letters in the official translation.  But some names do not translate, and the parents' concern is that if they use the father's Canadian family name, there doesn't seem to be a Chinese equivalent, so they don't know what to state as a family name in the Chinese birth certificate.  And if they use the mother's Chinese family name in the birth certificate, but want to use the father's Canadian family name in the baby's passport, this may cause confusion for CIC, and confusion generates delays and more hoops to jump through.

[steaky]

Many names do translate into Chinese, so they could be printed in Chinese characters on the birth certificate and in English letters in the official translation.  But some names do not translate, and the parents' concern is that if they use the father's Canadian family name, there doesn't seem to be a Chinese equivalent, so they don't know what to state as a family name in the Chinese birth certificate.  And if they use the mother's Chinese family name in the birth certificate, but want to use the father's Canadian family name in the baby's passport, this may cause confusion for CIC, and confusion generates delays and more hoops to jump through.

That is one of the reason why so many Chinese pregnant women flooded Hong Kong to give birth because the birth certificate shows name of the child both in English and Chinese.

[toby]

That is one of the reason why so many Chinese pregnant women flooded Hong Kong to give birth because the birth certificate shows name of the child both in English and Chinese.

But if the English family name has no Chinese equivalent, we have the same problem: how can the Hong Kong birth certificate be completed with an English family name that has no Chinese equivalent? 

[steaky]

I think every English family names has its Chinese equivalent.  Some may have more than 1 equivalent. 

Besides, the names in English does not always have to be the same meaning or equivalent to the Chinese.  Parents can choose whatever names in English and Chinese they thinks fit for their children.  Couple of my friends, hired fortune tellers, to decide the names.