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Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:43:22 -0800
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106
I'd be eager to hear an OFFICIAL answer, but my guess is that names need to be transcribed into your host country's alphabet system.
For example, if you are Greek or Russian or Arab or Chinese or Japanese or Korean or Cambodian or Swiss and you come to an
English-speaking country such as USA or England or Canada ... then I am guessing that you ned to map your country's character set
into the US one.
I don't expect the whole world to implement UNICODE character sets in all their business systems.
When traveling in Asia, you get very used to seeing the same name (or dish at the restaurant) written in many different ways due to
different dialect groups and people writing down characters so they approximate what it sounds like in the spoken form.
I wouldn't worry about the umlaut ... just go with the added "e" as I do when I type with my English keyboard. -chris
----- Original Message -----
From: Audrey0671_at_aol.com
To: nous_at_francoise-klaus.ch ; swiss-list_at_swiss-list.com
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 11:48 PM
Subject: Re: swiss-list: American birth certificate with special character
Congratulations on your expecting!!
I happen to be a Labor and Delivery nurse myself and I have a Swiss last
name. I had a legal name change almost 3 years ago. On the court paper I had
drawn up, I had both spellings on it - Schällibaum AND Schaellibaum. They were
literally written as "Schällibaum (Schaellibaum)" on the court paper and the
judge approved it. When I got my driver's license, nursing license, etc. -
they had to use the Schaellibaum spelling as they could not use the umlaut.
The professional organization where I am a member at did use the umlaut on my
card.
When I was working in Maryland I curiously asked our birth certificate
register on my floor and she told me that she cannot use the umlaut in names as the
state computer will not recognize it. Who knows that may change in the
future now we have so many immigrants who want to keep the official spelling of
their names.
Now I am in California - your E-mail question about that got me thinking - I
will ask the birth certificate register where I work.
I would like to know when you find out because when I have kids someday, I
want them to have the Schällibaum name.....with the umlaut, too!!
Audrey
In a message dated 2/28/2004 01:30:28 Pacific Standard Time,
nous_at_francoise-klaus.ch writes:
Hello Everyone!
We are expecting a baby for the month of July. Today we had our first contact
with the local "birth certificate office" and they
told us that it would not be possible to have the character "ö" in the last
name (Förstemann). However, as innocent as this
character may seem, it DOES make a difference whether you're Förstemann or
Foerstemann since both spellings exist back home!
Does anyone know what we need to do to get an "ö" in the family name for our
baby? We're in Massachusetts, just in case that makes a
difference.
Or, if this is not at all possible, does anyone know whether this will create
a problem once we try to inscribe the baby with the
birth certificate "Foerstemann" in the Familienbüchlein (or livret de famille
pour les romands) of the family "Förstemann" at the
Swiss consulate?
Thanks a lot for your help + have a nice weekend!
Françoise and Klaus
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Received on Mon Mar 01 2004 - 02:20:54 PST
