theDIBB - View Single Post - Esta

Lily8 · 11 Jun 19, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by ManCity

But you are not asked for 'first given name'. You are asked for 'First (Given) Name' - which is different - the brackets change the meaning. 'First (Given) Name' means 'First Name, i.e. Given Name'. 'Given' here qualifies 'First' and explains what is meant in this context.

Your name has 2 parts: Given Name and Family Name. All the family automatically has the same Family Name. The Given Name is the part you were given to distinguish you from all the other family members.

So, if your name is 'John Henry Smith', your Given Name is 'John Henry' which distinguishes you from 'John William' etc. Yes, 'John' and 'Henry' on their own are valid names, but your parents didn't want you to be 'John Smith', they wanted you to be 'John Henry'. Of course, in day to day use, names get abbreviated, e.g. to just 'John' (or maybe in some cases to 'Henry' or 'Harry'), but on an official form it should surely be expected that your full name is required, particularly when it is related to your passport, where 'Henry' is not separated from 'John'.

There has been speculation in the past couple of days as to how Michael Gove fills in his ESTA.

You might think his 'first name' is 'Michael', but his Given Name is actually 'Michael Andrew'. However, he was adopted and his name at birth was different: Graeme Logan. So his 'first name' was (obviously!) 'Graeme Logan' and his 'first given name' is 'Graeme'! Words can have different meanings to the one you expect, depending on the context, so reading all the instructions carefully is essential.

This is a US form, not a UK one, so needs to be interpreted as such. The US has a different version of English to the UK. They don't put 'petrol' in a car, they put 'gas', even though it is obviously a liquid and not a gas. Always read the pop-up instructions behind every '?'.

That's an interesting theory, but having completed dozens of American forms in the last 10 years (immigration as well as tax), I have yet to come across a form where the requirement to include a middle name (or indeed initial) has been phrased in this way. If anything the ESTA online form is quite un-American :-)