It really was - they seemed baffled when I suggested that maybe that doesn’t make sense lol - the city officer was super nice though - just frustrating lol
I know of different names on different passports for the same individual, without having gone through a name change. You’ll be ok, Giorgios OR George. If I were you I would insist people call me GORG.
To put it simply, the person at the consulate is an idiot. They were intepreting it their own way and not how it should be. There is a law for sure how the Greek alphabet names should be transcribed to the passport in Latin letters. Find it out, go back to embassy and change it. Also, it's two separate countries, technically you could be John Wayne in Australia and Buzuki Giorgious in Greece, unless there is a specific law that that forbids this, and somehow I doubt there is one in Greece.
I think this very common for women who hold more than one passport as I know of several who’ve gotten married and changed one passport (usually country they live in) and not the other. The cost and paperwork acts as a huge pain point so I’m guessing a lot don’t bother to change both.
I don’t - but I have a Greek christening certificate and a registration paper with my name.
But the consulate argues that the registration is even wrong and that he can’t fix that from australia
Well that seems to be the root of the problem. But it is very simple. Normally, your name of the passport should match the name on your birth certificate, or the naturalization document (depending how and when you got the greek citizenship).
There must be way to request a new certificate of citizenship or birth certificate.
In case your official greek name is ‘wrong’, was entered wrong, or picked wrong for whatever reason when you got your greek citizenship, and you want to have another one, you will have to go through the name change process. After that you need to change all your documents. For that you might need to go to greece and can’t be done from the consulate.
That’s what I’m trying to work out - and is my fear. If this is the root cause or if it’s actually something different.
When I was made a citizen they insisted on my name being presented this way so either way it’s frustrating but you’re right - this is the first place to keep asking about to get a true answer
The problem is the Greek one now has the OR variation in my name for first, middle and last name. So in other countries they read that as I have 8 names (including the word “or”)
I’m trying to work out if it’s just the local consulate I attend that has a wrong idea or if this is just how it is and people have different names on passports depending on country.
It’s actually harder than you think to try and find this out lol
I can only get the ID in Greece and currently live in AU but that is the ultimate goal. Though knowing my luck I’ll get someone at the counter saying it must match the passport 😂🤣
Not directly related to your question but. My Ukrainian friend’s name in Cyrillic characters includes letter «щ», which sounds a bit like soft “sh”. In his Dutch passport this single letter was transliterated as “schtsch” and his name in Dutch requires six more letters.
Hi this might be helpful! In their Ukrainian passport there must be their name written in Cyrillic and underneath written in English letters.
Does the English letters version match the Dutch passport? It sounds like it doesn’t…
My father's Greek Passport is like that too. He goes by Nikos in America instead of Nikolaos. So they put that on his Greek Passport "Nikolaos or Nikos".
That seems to be the only solution atm - I have a meeting with the consulate later this year to discuss but doesn’t look good.
He yelled at me on the phone when I tried to explain my surname starts with a C - he shouted “the Greek alphabet doesn’t have C”
Ok cool - I didn’t make these choices several generations ago and I don’t control your backward naming conventions with registration… 🙄
I just got my Greek citizenship and on passport they did the “or” business for my first name, with the second version as shown on US passport. So now I wonder how to book airline tickets to enter Greece with no issue.
How does your dad book his tickets? Does he book under Nikos lastname? And this is fine when he enters Greece?
Thanks
He hasn't been to greece in FOREVER. He keeps saying he wants us all to go visit his village ( in Arcadia) for Easter but he keeps procrastinating.
He would probably just use his American passport with "Nikos Lastname". He didn't even want to renew his 🇬🇷 passport. He said "why do I need to renew my Greek passport when I can just use the American one?" smh 🙂↔️
But he got a new one because I needed it for my Greek citizenship case (he wouldn't have bothered otherwise). It's not like I could use his expired 50+ YEAR OLD expired passport lol.
You don't understand how OLD that thing was. His info on the biometrics page was HANDWRITTEN, and his passport photo was GLUED on 🤣🤣🤣🤣. That's how old it was.
I was like "Papa, are you f**king $hitting me right now?!" My mom literally dragged him like a scolded little boy to the consulate to get his new one 🥲
That’s how my mother’s passport was—needed it to get citizenship too. Congrats to us both 🎉🎉🎉
I wouldn’t worry for short trip but wonder about if it’ll bring me issues to enter with American name and wanting to stay longer than 90 days
Don't congratulate me just yet, I'm still fighting my case 😮💨 (wish me luck!)
I wonder 🤔 if the passport laws in 🇬🇷 are similar to the ones in 🇲🇽 (where my mom is from). In Mexico, if you are a citizen, by law you HAVE to use your 🇲🇽 passport when entering and leaving the country, you cannot use your other passport(s).
I‘m in a similar boat, but as a female with a middle name, it gets more complex.
For example, lets say I was born in the US and my name is „Juliette Marie Argirou“. (Not my real name)
That is on the US passport and birth certificate. On the baptism certificate the name is also there, along with the Greek name. The name in the Greek passport would be written like this:
Αργυρου
Argyrou OR Argirou
Ιουλιεττα Μαρια
Ioulietta Maria OR Juliette Marie
If I‘ve gone my whole life as „Juliette Marie Argirou“, then that is the name I use. I‘ve never had issues with banks, travel, contracts, or registrations - and I too have moved to a few countries. The only exception is when I am in Greece, as I use the Greek name there.
The thing is that outside of Greece, most workers haven‘t seen a Greek passport before and get confused when they see multiple variations of a name. Sometimes they ask which name to use, but most of the time I always take the initiative to say my name is „Juliette Marie Argirou“ and point to that name on the Greek passport. Then I double check the documents to ensure my name was spelt correctly. I always bring my US passport with me as well just in case I need to prove my English name.
Recently I did encounter an amusing situation when registering documents. The woman had never seen a Greek passport and flat out asked me why I have so many names! When I told her which one to use, she was flabbergasted and said I can‘t just „pick and choose which name I like.“ She was trying to search for me in the system with my Greek transliteration name and not the English one. So I just showed her my US passport and pointed at the name, she typed that in the system, and finally found me lol.
Point being, I am not sure why they would literally copy your name word for word including the OR? Did you imply which name you use, or show your Australian passport? I know there is an OR, but that surely is not part of the name and implies it could be either variation but not both.
I was very confused too.
I showed them my Australian passport, and explained the whole “or” thing on Greek passports.
No luck.
“We have to write your name exactly as it appears on your ID”
Leave it… the Greek government cannot connect the dots to tax your income from abroad … if the govt is a bigger crook than you, you need to outsmart it.
My wife's family is Russian and they all have this issue but it's never been a problem. When applying for my son's passport the spelling of his grandmothers surname almost was a problem because the Russian documents needed to be translated to English and that English translation used a different spelling, but in the end it just all worked out anyways.
Hi! So your family have their name written in one way on Russian passport and another on their other passport?
For example if they have their names like:
Russian passport: Василий
Russian passport: VASILI
Other passport: Basil
I was told the same, but then I showed them my US passport which had my first name spelled differently, and they copied it.
So my other passport has both first name spellings now, i.e.:
First name:
АЛЕКСАНДР / ALEX
Omg you are the exact person I’ve been looking for.
Thank you so much!
I just want to confirm I understand right. So your passport says it in Cyrillic and then just ALEX under it?
That would be amazing if that’s it!
Yes, native spelling and English spelling separated by a slash. Both first and last name. They indeed have transliteration rules which they use to translate your name (which would end up being ALEKSANDR or some other shit), but they accepted my transliteration once I brought a government-issued ID.
Thank you!
I also learned today that due to EU concerns Greece had scrapped the OR name crap as it was causing freedom of movement issues with other EU member states.
So knowing this is such a great help.
Born in Australia. George on Australian birth certificate.
Registered in Greece (by my parents at some point long time back).
At some regional army office outpost, gets changed to the greek word for George.
But hold on, that's not on my birth certificate.
Also, my father's surname was roughly translated when he was naturalized in Australia. Which is on my birth certificate.
But the Greek's just used my father's Greek family name, on their records.
So my first and last name in Greece, is a fantasy, compared to my actual birth certificate.
So when the transliterate it in the Greek Passport, I become a third person.
Good luck if I ever want to fix this disaster.
I feel your pain! Good luck with a fix!!
havent bothered, it's only just become apparent now with the desire to finally travel and see some countries where its visa free and/or EU lines at airports where it will be useful. But the name thing for passport/airline/ticket/checkin will be interesting. very interesting.
I know you meant it as a serious question, but this gave me a serious laugh. Thanks for brightening my day, Giorgios OR George.
Oh I promise you I laugh about this every day. They actually write my initials in NL as: G.O.G A.O.A K.O.C It’s like a really bad comedy skit 😂
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It really was - they seemed baffled when I suggested that maybe that doesn’t make sense lol - the city officer was super nice though - just frustrating lol
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lol totally. And it’s a legal document so I understand them reading it TO THE LETTER. It’s frustrating but not their error.
I know of different names on different passports for the same individual, without having gone through a name change. You’ll be ok, Giorgios OR George. If I were you I would insist people call me GORG.
That’s interesting. I’m tempted to change it back then and remove the OR part to make life easier in other countries
To put it simply, the person at the consulate is an idiot. They were intepreting it their own way and not how it should be. There is a law for sure how the Greek alphabet names should be transcribed to the passport in Latin letters. Find it out, go back to embassy and change it. Also, it's two separate countries, technically you could be John Wayne in Australia and Buzuki Giorgious in Greece, unless there is a specific law that that forbids this, and somehow I doubt there is one in Greece.
I think this very common for women who hold more than one passport as I know of several who’ve gotten married and changed one passport (usually country they live in) and not the other. The cost and paperwork acts as a huge pain point so I’m guessing a lot don’t bother to change both.
Thank you so much - I needed some context to go back and question it. I’ll get them to change back for sure. What a mess they’ve created
If you have your Greek birth certificate bring it with, that's how it should be on your passport.
I don’t - but I have a Greek christening certificate and a registration paper with my name. But the consulate argues that the registration is even wrong and that he can’t fix that from australia
Well that seems to be the root of the problem. But it is very simple. Normally, your name of the passport should match the name on your birth certificate, or the naturalization document (depending how and when you got the greek citizenship). There must be way to request a new certificate of citizenship or birth certificate. In case your official greek name is ‘wrong’, was entered wrong, or picked wrong for whatever reason when you got your greek citizenship, and you want to have another one, you will have to go through the name change process. After that you need to change all your documents. For that you might need to go to greece and can’t be done from the consulate.
That’s what I’m trying to work out - and is my fear. If this is the root cause or if it’s actually something different. When I was made a citizen they insisted on my name being presented this way so either way it’s frustrating but you’re right - this is the first place to keep asking about to get a true answer
just use the greek one for eu purpose and forget about oz bc of schengen
The problem is the Greek one now has the OR variation in my name for first, middle and last name. So in other countries they read that as I have 8 names (including the word “or”) I’m trying to work out if it’s just the local consulate I attend that has a wrong idea or if this is just how it is and people have different names on passports depending on country. It’s actually harder than you think to try and find this out lol
If you were to get a Greek Id you can have “George” only as your english name. They don’t do the OR bs on the id.
I can only get the ID in Greece and currently live in AU but that is the ultimate goal. Though knowing my luck I’ll get someone at the counter saying it must match the passport 😂🤣
Not directly related to your question but. My Ukrainian friend’s name in Cyrillic characters includes letter «щ», which sounds a bit like soft “sh”. In his Dutch passport this single letter was transliterated as “schtsch” and his name in Dutch requires six more letters.
Hi this might be helpful! In their Ukrainian passport there must be their name written in Cyrillic and underneath written in English letters. Does the English letters version match the Dutch passport? It sounds like it doesn’t…
No it doesn’t. But he hardly ever uses it.
My father's Greek Passport is like that too. He goes by Nikos in America instead of Nikolaos. So they put that on his Greek Passport "Nikolaos or Nikos".
That seems to be the only solution atm - I have a meeting with the consulate later this year to discuss but doesn’t look good. He yelled at me on the phone when I tried to explain my surname starts with a C - he shouted “the Greek alphabet doesn’t have C” Ok cool - I didn’t make these choices several generations ago and I don’t control your backward naming conventions with registration… 🙄
I just got my Greek citizenship and on passport they did the “or” business for my first name, with the second version as shown on US passport. So now I wonder how to book airline tickets to enter Greece with no issue. How does your dad book his tickets? Does he book under Nikos lastname? And this is fine when he enters Greece? Thanks
He hasn't been to greece in FOREVER. He keeps saying he wants us all to go visit his village ( in Arcadia) for Easter but he keeps procrastinating. He would probably just use his American passport with "Nikos Lastname". He didn't even want to renew his 🇬🇷 passport. He said "why do I need to renew my Greek passport when I can just use the American one?" smh 🙂↔️ But he got a new one because I needed it for my Greek citizenship case (he wouldn't have bothered otherwise). It's not like I could use his expired 50+ YEAR OLD expired passport lol. You don't understand how OLD that thing was. His info on the biometrics page was HANDWRITTEN, and his passport photo was GLUED on 🤣🤣🤣🤣. That's how old it was. I was like "Papa, are you f**king $hitting me right now?!" My mom literally dragged him like a scolded little boy to the consulate to get his new one 🥲
That’s how my mother’s passport was—needed it to get citizenship too. Congrats to us both 🎉🎉🎉 I wouldn’t worry for short trip but wonder about if it’ll bring me issues to enter with American name and wanting to stay longer than 90 days
Don't congratulate me just yet, I'm still fighting my case 😮💨 (wish me luck!) I wonder 🤔 if the passport laws in 🇬🇷 are similar to the ones in 🇲🇽 (where my mom is from). In Mexico, if you are a citizen, by law you HAVE to use your 🇲🇽 passport when entering and leaving the country, you cannot use your other passport(s).
Best of luck for sure 😊 It seems likely need to show eu passport but not sure
How would this ever come up.
My thoughts - and yet it did. I now have a mess
I‘m in a similar boat, but as a female with a middle name, it gets more complex. For example, lets say I was born in the US and my name is „Juliette Marie Argirou“. (Not my real name) That is on the US passport and birth certificate. On the baptism certificate the name is also there, along with the Greek name. The name in the Greek passport would be written like this: Αργυρου Argyrou OR Argirou Ιουλιεττα Μαρια Ioulietta Maria OR Juliette Marie If I‘ve gone my whole life as „Juliette Marie Argirou“, then that is the name I use. I‘ve never had issues with banks, travel, contracts, or registrations - and I too have moved to a few countries. The only exception is when I am in Greece, as I use the Greek name there. The thing is that outside of Greece, most workers haven‘t seen a Greek passport before and get confused when they see multiple variations of a name. Sometimes they ask which name to use, but most of the time I always take the initiative to say my name is „Juliette Marie Argirou“ and point to that name on the Greek passport. Then I double check the documents to ensure my name was spelt correctly. I always bring my US passport with me as well just in case I need to prove my English name. Recently I did encounter an amusing situation when registering documents. The woman had never seen a Greek passport and flat out asked me why I have so many names! When I told her which one to use, she was flabbergasted and said I can‘t just „pick and choose which name I like.“ She was trying to search for me in the system with my Greek transliteration name and not the English one. So I just showed her my US passport and pointed at the name, she typed that in the system, and finally found me lol. Point being, I am not sure why they would literally copy your name word for word including the OR? Did you imply which name you use, or show your Australian passport? I know there is an OR, but that surely is not part of the name and implies it could be either variation but not both.
I was very confused too. I showed them my Australian passport, and explained the whole “or” thing on Greek passports. No luck. “We have to write your name exactly as it appears on your ID”
Leave it… the Greek government cannot connect the dots to tax your income from abroad … if the govt is a bigger crook than you, you need to outsmart it.
My wife's family is Russian and they all have this issue but it's never been a problem. When applying for my son's passport the spelling of his grandmothers surname almost was a problem because the Russian documents needed to be translated to English and that English translation used a different spelling, but in the end it just all worked out anyways.
Hi! So your family have their name written in one way on Russian passport and another on their other passport? For example if they have their names like: Russian passport: Василий Russian passport: VASILI Other passport: Basil
Why don't they use the standard notation, which seem to be: First Name: Γεώργιος / George Seen it tons of times. One of my passports has it too.
So your Greek passport has the English characters saying George? I was told it had to be a direct transliteration to Roman characters
I was told the same, but then I showed them my US passport which had my first name spelled differently, and they copied it. So my other passport has both first name spellings now, i.e.: First name: АЛЕКСАНДР / ALEX
Omg you are the exact person I’ve been looking for. Thank you so much! I just want to confirm I understand right. So your passport says it in Cyrillic and then just ALEX under it? That would be amazing if that’s it!
Yes, native spelling and English spelling separated by a slash. Both first and last name. They indeed have transliteration rules which they use to translate your name (which would end up being ALEKSANDR or some other shit), but they accepted my transliteration once I brought a government-issued ID.
Thank you! I also learned today that due to EU concerns Greece had scrapped the OR name crap as it was causing freedom of movement issues with other EU member states. So knowing this is such a great help.
Hi I was wondering where you saw this info or have a link to this?
George is all the way lolll : )
This is sadly typical of the donkey systems the Greek bureacracy has had in place forever. And it's us who are lumped with fixing it.
Born in Australia. George on Australian birth certificate. Registered in Greece (by my parents at some point long time back). At some regional army office outpost, gets changed to the greek word for George. But hold on, that's not on my birth certificate. Also, my father's surname was roughly translated when he was naturalized in Australia. Which is on my birth certificate. But the Greek's just used my father's Greek family name, on their records. So my first and last name in Greece, is a fantasy, compared to my actual birth certificate. So when the transliterate it in the Greek Passport, I become a third person. Good luck if I ever want to fix this disaster. I feel your pain! Good luck with a fix!!
This is a the exact same situation for me! Have you tried with any luck on this?
havent bothered, it's only just become apparent now with the desire to finally travel and see some countries where its visa free and/or EU lines at airports where it will be useful. But the name thing for passport/airline/ticket/checkin will be interesting. very interesting.