Tech Forum

luvmy8dz wrote:I'm a ward clerk and we have a member who had a baby who was originally put up for adoption but the adoption fell thru at the last minute. The adoptive parents had already chosen name for the child and recorded it on her birth certificate. Now the birth mom wants to give the child a name and blessing with a different name. They are unable to change the name legally until they go to court in a few months. My question is can the child be given a name on the records of the church which is different from the name on her birth certificate?

Refer to the Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 1, 2006, page 32. The name will be the same as on the birth certificate. The options for the mother are to wait until the certificate is legally changed or to change the Church records after the naming and bessing are given and after the legal change of name.

jdlessley wrote:Refer to the Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 1, 2006, page 32. The name will be the same as on the birth certificate. The options for the mother are to wait until the certificate is legally changed or to change the Church records after the naming and bessing are given and after the legal change of name.

Perhaps the other option is to have the full, legal name in MLS be what's on the birth certificate and then temporarily have the preferred name in MLS be the desired name. Once the legal stuff comes through, then that can be changed to match the preferred name at that time.

So combining all of the answers, you can safely tell the parents to use whatever name they want for the blessing. The "legal" name should be what's on the birth certificate, and the preferred name can be the one they've chosen.

Then consolidate later.

(I often hear these horror stories about Grandpa doing the blessing and botching the name at the podium. I reassure parents that it's whatever name is submitted on the paperwork that counts.)

geek wrote:So combining all of the answers, you can safely tell the parents to use whatever name they want for the blessing.

No, this is not correct. As I mentioned in post #2 the procedures in the CHI should be followed.

The bottom line is the name on the membership record and certificate of blessing should match the name on the birth certificate or civil birth registry. My proposal was for the mother to get the name on the birth certificate changed legally before the blessing. If the child's name is changed after the blessing then the certificate of blessing will have the original name on it. But the membership record can be changed after a the child's name has been changed legally.

Our previous Stake President would always train his Bishop's to answer questions this way.

1) What do your counselors say
2) What does the handbook say
3) What does the Spirit say

I'm not a "handbook police" kind of guy, but mostl definitely page 31 and 32 should be reviewed, specific mention of the name matching the birth certificate is at the bottom of page 32. Until that point it's not mentioned at all, so I can only assume that there is a specific reason it was mentioned for the case sited.

Once you have that, then the Bishop can move forward and review what input his counselors have offered, and then go to the Spirit (the Spirit always trumps), and make a decision.