Passport renewal, middle name not on b.c, what to do?

[bumbershoot]

I just realized that I'm about to leave the (extremely generous) passport renewal window, and that combined with the new prices means that I'll be getting the application, fee, and old p'port into the mail tomorrow.

However....things have changed since my last passport!

My birth certificate has just first and last names. I later, in elementary school, chose a middle name. That sort of thing was allowed then, and when my mom applied for my SS card as I approached working age (as one did back then, vs today when you get it in about a month post-baby-arrival), she got it with my middle name on it. My driver's licenses have always had my middle name on them. My passport has middle name on it.

But I have nothing other than those forms documenting the change. Why? Because one could cite common use back then, for middle names, and it wasn't a big deal.

Just over 10 years ago, I wanted to drop the middle, and tried to do so at the DMV. The employee nearly fainted, because I had no official name change (so obviously it had changed even *before* 9/11). He said I would have to do a legal name change to include the middle, and then change it right back legally. I dropped it at that point, and, strangely, I was allowed to get a new license in a name the dude knew was not my given, legal, name.

So now this passport. Include the middle, since my old passport will be included in the package and it has my middle on it? Or leave the middle name off?


Anyone *know*?

I'll also call the passport people tomorrow, but I'd like any answers now, if at all possible. If anyone knows.

Thanks!

 

[bumbershoot]

Aha! This is what happens when you're trying to figure two things out at once. I won't have to send my birth cert, so they won't have that right in their faces. They and SS already know me with my middle.

Whew.