Feb
15
What’s in a name?
I’ve been called by my middle name my whole life, wasn’t too much of a problem growing up (except for disliking both my names!). It was only a slight problem after I married but I got my social security card changed and went about my life and business using my middle name, maiden name and my married last name. Ever since 9/11 it’s been even more of a problem, mostly as far as travel goes. If I buy a ticket with my name I’m called by, it’s not the name on my driver’s license; my first name is still on my license but I have always signed it by my middle name. When I go through security at airports they look at it a little more closely but usually when I point out that I’ve signed it “Gail” everything is just fine. Until I was flying home from Wichita about a week or so ago. The lady checking it wouldn’t let me go through but tagged me to get checked by TSA. I’ve never had that before but they pat you down all over! Then they took everything out of my backpack and purse and wiped all that down with those swipe things they had to put in a machine, to check for explosives I guess! I am glad that they seem to be diligent about it though. One of the reasons I haven’t been buying the tickets with my first name is that all my frequent flyer accounts are in my middle name, so I would get no credit on my account for flying. So after flying 3 times out of 5 weekends in the last month, I decided I would just go and get my driver’s license changed to my middle name, so my ticket could match my license name…..that was hubby’s idea because he said that would be best to do and of course they would change it! I live in Small Town America and there are only 2 Thursdays each month that anyone is in town to issue driver’s licenses. Today was my lucky day though and they were in town! I took my social security card with me (it has my name as I use it for business and personal stuff) and took my birth certificate just in case. When it was my turn to be waited on I told the nice lady I wanted to change my name on my license and showed her my SS card. She said they don’t change it based on social security cards but I would need my birth certificate. I was glad I’d taken it, gave it to her and she looked at it and my license and said, “What’s wrong with it?” I tell her again that I want my first name taken off and my middle name put on my license and then she said, “we can’t do that”. She said I would have to change the birth certificate in order to do it……that just didn’t seem like an easy option to me! She did say that she could put my first and middle name so both would be on my license, so that will be the best I can do I suppose. I’ll probably have to resort to buying my tickets with my first name on them and not get credit for miles, unless I can find a way to change all the accounts I have with different airlines. Online there is no option for changing a name on the account so I might have to wait on the phone for long periods of time and hope I get a “real” person to talk to!
A few years ago I guess we never could have imagined that all this would become a problem.
If anyone is thinking of naming babies in the future, my advice is call them by the first name you give them and not the middle name! It might make some things just a little bit easier!
February 15th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I can see how this could cause problems. Good luck!!!
February 15th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Well, I’m glad they put both names but I still don’t understand why if your name is on your SSN card, they can’t match your drivers license to that. I thought that was what they used. Such a pain. I’m glad MY parents didn’t name me a funny middle name, LOL!!! hahaha just kidding 🙂
February 15th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
That kind of thing is always a hassle. I haven’t changed my driver’s license since I got married last year. I figure I’ll just wait until it expires.
The license, that is ;~)
I hope putting both of your names on there resolves the problem! It would be a shame to lose credit for the miles you travel because of something so trivial.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Craziness!!!
February 15th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Hopefully, now you won’t have so much trouble since you have both names on your license!
February 16th, 2007 at 11:57 am
So what’s the mysterious first name???