Thread: отчество and middle names

Middle name and Отчество are different things.

It's possible that to issue a birth certificate they require an отчество, but probably not necessary for passport (person can choose any name, even change names when applying for a passport). I know an American citizen who married a Russian woman citizen, they adopted an infant, and they required the отчество for the birth certificate, even though he was not the biological father. So they used his American name for отчество (though there's no Russian equivalent for his Anglo-Saxon name, they just added -ович to the name, and it was OK for everyone). So in such cases it looks like a legal formality (at least, in today's legislation). It's probably possible to make almost any name take a Russian patronymic ending, or find a close equivalent.

that's good information to know, but I feel like most of my original questions remain unanswered...

I asked if a Russian moved to America and get's American citizenship, or any other Anglophone country, would their new citizenship write their patronymic as their middle name or would their new citizenship not reflect the patronymic at all?

and if a Russian couple had a child in the United States or another Anglophone country, (and this I understand is totally discretionary from the parents) would they make the child's middle name to be the same as his otchestvo?