Did I just changed my name?

So, when I went to the SS Office to apply a SSN, on the application there is two lines that said "Birthname" and "name appear on the card". Now I have a rather hard to pronounce name (Bingjun), so I drop last three letters (to Bing) to make it easier to pronounce and put it in "name appear on the card". To me, is nothing more than "Johnathan" > "John" type of thing.

The SS card arrived with the fixed "Name appeared on the card", when I went to get permit for license today, they initially didn't care until I passed the written test and went to get the temp permit. The woman did not accept my application due to the fact that my IDs don't match. Told me that I need to go to SS Office to get my name fix because they "got it wrong". Asked me some questions such whether I changed my name and such. I told her why I done it, she go "yeah, I don't know about that". Only after talking to her superiors that she begrudgingly accept and gave me the temp permit .

Right now, I don't know what should I do. Go change the name or just leave it like that. I hate how people try to pronounce my whole name and mess up, I plan to just leave it with the short version, but then it won't match my EAD and future license.

Any idea people?

Probably not the best idea to change the wording of your legal name.

you have to use the name that appears on your EAD exactly when you apply for the SSN. you cant leave out letters or change it just because other people dont know how to pronounce your name.

go back, get it changed to the correct spelling then go back to the DMV. you've just created a problem for yourself.

I'll go back to ss office then. I don't think I have to go back to the DMV since my application had been accepted (they changed the name to the EAD one).

Not true. I made a topic about this if anyone cares to read what you should do and what constitutes your legal name. Not going to write it all again. Feel free to search for it. I shortened my name compared to how it appeared on the EAD or PR card.


You however sound like you screwed up since you changed the spelling of your name. You need a court document to change that.

wow, then I don't know why they allow us to write in "Name appear on the card"

you do need a court document to change your legal name. Otherwise, banks and whatnot are not going to have a good time inputting your data in their systems

um... can I leave it like this, as I am planning to change my name to that in the future (if CIR passes and I get approved)?

a genuine question: Why is this a serious problem when I already put my full name on "Birth name" and thus, they should have info that associate the name with the card.

It depends where you go to be honest,I don't have a middle name and my ITIN card had both my paternal and maternal name, well when i got my licenese, no room for maternal so they only put the first letter of it. Well, when I first opened a bank account, they were pretty anal about the fact my ITIN card did not have the exact name as my license. I mean, I would just try to fix it for simplicity purposes only

They let you shorten your name at the SSA? I went there and the guy took my EAD and Passport and he did everything on the computer. I don't even remember signing anything.