"Other Names Used/Nicknames" - How intense are we talking here?

[goldfinger]

For the "other names" section of the immigration paperwork, I understand that we would include things like maiden names... but what about very basic nicknames? IE - Thomas vs Tom, John vs Johnathon, and that type of thing?

I have letters from friends/family that refer to me in that shortened type of context, but nothing legal. Is that a big deal?

 

[Underhill]

Pretty sure shortened versions of names as in your example aren't what they're after. If your legal name is John Smith but everyone knew you as Dan Goldfinger when you lived in Des Moines that one mid-life-crisis year, you should mention it. Otherwise, William and Bill, et al, are the same name.

 

[armoured]

For the "other names" section of the immigration paperwork, I understand that we would include things like maiden names... but what about very basic nicknames? IE - Thomas vs Tom, John vs Johnathon, and that type of thing?

I have letters from friends/family that refer to me in that shortened type of context, but nothing legal. Is that a big deal?

Should not matter if just informal use, i.e. "Goldie" when you're playing poker. Mostly for cases where people are known / sign / do business as under the nickname. (If it's a very common shortform for a first name, even less important)

 

[StellaArtois]

Agree with the above posts.

My husband and I ran into this issue with our application as we both have many online aliases and cute/silly names for each other...

Our lawyer told us not to bother putting those into other names/nicknames, and to only write our names that may appear on important documents or that people in real life (outside of us two) often call us by.

For mine we put my maiden name into the other names/nicknames box, and for my husband, we put the shortened form of his first name into the other names/nicknames box.

In our conversation logs and social media posts when our other "names" came up, we listed all the names for each of us in those sections, but not in the nicknames/other names box.

Hope that helps!

 

[PaoTalamantesh]

It does not refer to nicknames used by friends and family, it refers to names they use in legal proceedings. My husband has a middle name that he doesn't use. His name, middle name, and last name appear on the birth certificate. But in his passport, ID, bank account and marriage certificate only appears his first and last name. In that section we put his middle name, it appears in the legal documents, but not in all of them.

 

[armoured]

It does not refer to nicknames used by friends and family, it refers to names they use in legal proceedings. My husband has a middle name that he doesn't use. His name, middle name, and last name appear on the birth certificate. But in his passport, ID, bank account and marriage certificate only appears his first and last name. In that section we put his middle name, it appears in the legal documents, but not in all of them.

I agree that this is mainly what they are interested in, names used in legal docs/proceedings. It does not mean informal names or nicknames or handles used in social media etc.

There is one more context though in which may be important to show another name even if not used in legal docs - where one is known professionally under a different name and it's relevant to the verification of who the person is/history. This is what I meant when I referred to "doing business as" (a legal term used for companies).

For example, your legal name is Nicolas Kim Coppola and you have never changed that name or used another for legal docs - but you are widely known professionally as Nicolas Cage. (Perhaps more common in some places where 'ethnic' or difficult or very long names are shortened or simplified, or extremely common names modified to distinguish from others with the same name).

Again, it's a narrow case that will likely not apply to many. But if you're publicly on the internet professionally under a different name, even if you don't use it in legal documents, you should assume that you may be internet searched and proper matching may help establish bona fides / identity more quickly (and non-matching may cause confusion or delays).

I'm sure there are other uncommon cases but hopefully should be obvious.

 

[noah8532g]

I agree that this is mainly what they are interested in, names used in legal docs/proceedings. It does not mean informal names or nicknames or handles used in social media etc.

There is one more context though in which may be important to show another name even if not used in legal docs - where one is known professionally under a different name and it's relevant to the verification of who the person is/history. This is what I meant when I referred to "doing business as" (a legal term used for companies).

For example, your legal name is Nicolas Kim Coppola and you have never changed that name or used another for legal docs - but you are widely known professionally as Nicolas Cage. (Perhaps more common in some places where 'ethnic' or difficult or very long names are shortened or simplified, or extremely common names modified to distinguish from others with the same name).

Again, it's a narrow case that will likely not apply to many. But if you're publicly on the internet professionally under a different name, even if you don't use it in legal documents, you should assume that you may be internet searched and proper matching may help establish bona fides / identity Names Hustle more quickly (and non-matching may cause confusion or delays).

I'm sure there are other uncommon cases but hopefully should be obvious.

This does not refer to nicknames used by friends and family but rather to names used in legal proceedings. My husband has a middle name listed on his birth certificate, along with his first and last names. However, his passport, ID, bank account, and marriage certificate only include his first and last names. In the section where we list his full legal name, we included his middle name because it appears in some legal documents, even though it is not present in all of them.

 

[armoured]

This does not refer to nicknames used by friends and family but rather to names used in legal proceedings. My husband has a middle name listed on his birth certificate, along with his first and last names. However, his passport, ID, bank account, and marriage certificate only include his first and last names. In the section where we list his full legal name, we included his middle name because it appears in some legal documents, even though it is not present in all of them.

You copied verbatim text from another user. Get in the sea, spammer.