Changing baby's name on birth certificate

Once that's done, that's it unless the hospital has made an error, says Carol Levatino, deputy town clerk and deputy registrar for the Town of Huntington. If there is a typo or other mistake -- the parents get the certificate and say, "That wasn't supposed to be an 'i'; it was supposed to be an 'l,' " for instance -- the state allows the hospital one year during which a corrected birth certificate can be reissued, Levatino says.

But you can't just change Mary's name to Samantha, for instance. "You can't be willy-nilly changing your child's name," Levatino says. "Albany would not tolerate that." Then you're looking at going to court and getting a legal name change, she says. The bottom line: Have a name chosen -- or at least narrowed to a couple of choices -- before junior's birth. Then embrace your decision.

That's accurate. If you choose a first name at the hospital and later change your mind, that's when you have a problem and need to seek a legal name change. But if you leave without filling in any first name at all, that rarely used loophole buys parents extra time. You later fill out a state form called a "supplemental report of given name," says Jo-Ann Raia, Huntington Town clerk. There's no time limit, Raia says.

"After we brought our first daughter home, we tried the different names we were considering and finally decided on one after she was 7 weeks old," the writer says. "Getting a new birth certificate with her 'real' name was easy. I would recommend trying out the name at home and getting accustomed to it on your baby before registering it."