Why I warn people who advocate a end to birthright citizenship, that they aren't going to put an end to illegal aliens but rather create problems for US citizens. I can tell you how hard it is to get an incorrect birth certificate fixed from personal experience with my son. The idiots at St. Mary's hospital(West Palm Beach FL) sent it in without Daniel's name on it. Since Daniel died 14.5 hours after birth and didn't get a SS# applied for, I needed this document for tax and insurance purposes.

Bill

What’s interesting to me is that, well into the computer age, we’re still having trouble syncing up databases for such routine matters. There’s simply no reason that things like name and address changes shouldn’t be able to be made at a central location, with appropriate security measures implemented, and then instantly proliferated throughout the system.

Names and addresses should not be used as identifiers in a computer database in the first place. This is a Database Design 101 lesson, identity fields should never change, and data that could change should never be an identity field. All that centralized database needs is a unique ID, then every other database can have their own listed name and address, but all are tied together by the one unique ID.

The reputation of state DMVs is a well deserved one. Let's put the blame for this SNAFU where it belongs.

But which are diminishing, as the practice is becoming more and more common. Married at ages 54 and 50 in 1997, my wife and I have maintained two different last names with no difficulty at all. Other than when our friends decide, "We're going over to the..."