I managed to get my birth certificate updated!

As somebody with an unusual name, I often get questions, and I welcome them.

(Sidenote: I changed my name by deed poll, and since then I've run a website that helps British citizens change their name by deed poll for free and without a solicitor. But that's another story.)

Except that there's one particular question that comes with a particular judgemental tone, of which I'm not so keen. Usually it comes right after somebody learns my name, and it sounds like this:

"Yeah... but what's your real name? You know... the one on your birth certificate?"

Ugh.

Fuck you.

Previously, my response has always been to explain that no, my real name is the one I've been using for the last 20 years, and who the hell are you to imply that I'm just "pretending" by claiming that the name that got written onto a form when I was a week old is somehow more-legitimate than the one that everybody in my life calls me.

But as of this week, I've got a new response.

I've actually managed to get my birth certificate retroactively updated to show my name as "Dan Q"!

I took advantage of an interesting quirk of Scottish law, combined with the fact that I was born in Scotland, to be able to ret-con the name that I've been using for two-thirds of my adult life back onto my birth certificate.

So that's what I'm celebrating this week. Follow the linkie above if you want to see me proudly holding my (revised) birth certificate!