For those who obtained Italian citizenship - how is your middle name registered?

[JTSD20]

Hi guys,

This question is more an idle curiosity while I wait for my ancestor's USCIS docs to roll in (my records request is going to blow out birthday candles this month..ugh). For those of you who have obtained dual citizenship, what happened to your middle name? Did it become an extension of your first name? Did it get registered as a second name? Did you get to choose?

I am curious because I am a woman whose name can be perceived as masculine in non-English languages, but my middle name is a solidly female Italian name. For example, let's say my name was Michelle but it was spelled with only one "L" (thus it would be the masculine name Michele in Italian).

It would be nice to just have them both as a first name so I won't be misgendered all the time in writing if I move to Italy. I've even toyed with the idea of a legal name change (I just need to slap an "a" on the end of my current name!) but then it'll add even more paperwork to file with my 1948 case.

Anyway, any comments and thoughts are welcome!

[TerraLavoro]

First, don't complicate your life with a legal name change... you have enough waiting time in dealing with a 1948 case.
As far as "first" name and "middle" name, Italians don't have "middle" names per se.

There is your name (which can be three or four names i.e. Salvatore Leonardo Giuseppe Maria) and then your last name (cognome).

As to how your name will be recorded in documents, all the "first" names will be in one field, and your last name will be in a separate field. This is standard for all of us.

[mler]

Absolutely. My name (first and middle) was recorded as they appear on my US birth certificate.

[cedrone]

What suggested by the poster, (if I well understood) , willing to ask Italian citizenship with a new name, while maintaining US citizenship with the present name, is not possible.
I read on another forum that a person having two citizenships must have the same name on the documents of both Countries and, should a Court or other competent authority decide a change of name, this decision would be valid and registered also in the other Country.

[mler]

A legal name change only makes sense if you do it in the US before you submit an application for recognition. I was forced to do this because the name I was using all my life was spelled differently from the name on my birth certificate. I legally changed my name to the spelling I had been using, and then submitted the change to NYC, where they issued a new birth certificate noting my name change. This was the bc I submitted to the consulate and that is the name Italy used as well.

The process is easy, and it took me only a few months, but it was easier for me because all my US records were already in the “new” name. If you are fine with keeping your first (gender ambiguous) name and your middle (gender obvious) name, you can be assured that both will appear on your Italian records.