• Case Number: a20100302.1
• Status: Closed
• Claimants: Dennis K
• Respondents: CAcert

• Initial Case Manager: UlrichSchroeter

• Case Manager: Mario Lipinski

• Arbitrator: UlrichSchroeter

• Date of arbitration start: 2011-02-24
• Date of ruling: 2011-04-12
• Case closed: 2011-04-12
• Complaint: Givenname with Hyphen, 2nd givenname missing
• Relief: TBD

Before: Arbitrator UlrichSchroeter (A), Respondent: CAcert (R), Claimant: Dennis K (C), Case: a20100302.1

History Log

• 2010-03-02 (issue.c.o) case [s20100302.152]
• 2010-03-03 (iCM): added to wiki, request for CM / A
• 2011-02-24 (A): I'll take care about this case as (A)
• 2011-02-24 (CM): appointed by (A)
• 2011-02-24 (A): sent init mailing with CCA/DRP acceptance request to (C)
• 2011-02-24 (C): accepts CCA/DRP, added some questions
• 2011-02-24 (A): answering (C)'s questions
• 2011-02-24 (A): requesting from (Support): 1. full name in account fields list, 2. Assurances received
• 2011-02-25 (Support): [s20110224.77] response to requested infos. Assurances rcvd from (AS1), (AS2), (AS3), (AS4), (AS5)
• 2011-02-26 (A): requesting infos from (AS5)
• 2011-03-02 (AS5): responded
• 2011-03-04 (A): publishing deliberations. Request for statement by (C) + (AS5) in role as Assurance Core Team member with deadline set to 2011-03-09
• 2011-03-09 (C): prefers ruling under common-law and short givenname variant
• 2011-03-13 (A): Interview Iang about common name law

• 2011-04-04 (A): sending a draft ruling to (Assurance Core team -> ACT) regarding to make this case precedent

• 2011-04-04 (ACT1): forward of BMI statement from 2007
• 2011-04-05 (ACT2): 2nd statement
• 2011-04-05 (A): answer to statement (ACT1)
• 2011-04-12 (Iang/A): irc log - sample case Givenname w/ hyphen

Original Dispute, Discovery (Private Part)

• Link to Arbitration case a20100302.1 (Private Part)

EOT Private Part

Discovery

• related policies

  • Assurance Policy

  • Assurance Handbook

  • PracticeOnNames (last updated 2011-02-13)

Deliberations

• 2011-02-26 (A):
  • Assurance Policy defines strict rules under 2.1. The Member's Name, to abolish it in the next paragraph 2.2. Multiple Names and variations
  • Germanys local law has very strict definitions about double names combined with a hyphen. In Germanys law, the hyphen combines two givennames to one givenname, to be considered one name, that cannot be split
  • I can find hyphen rules for Spain, where hyphens were used to signal the reader, where in the long name, the givennames ends and the lastname starts by combining the lastnames with a hyphen.
  • No other hyphen rules found so far, especialy not in Common Law.
  • CAcert's DRP allows the ruling by local laws if applicable: DRP 2.2 Preliminaries

    • The Arbitrator affirms the governing law (NSW, Australia). The Arbitrator may select local law and local procedures where Claimants and all Respondents agree, are under such jurisdiction, and it is deemed more appropriate. However, this is strictly limited to those parties, and especially, CAcert and other parties remains under the governing law. 

  • What does this mean for this case ?
    1. As there is no two-givennames-combined-with-hyphen-is-one-givenname in Common Law, Common Law allows the usage of
       • Givenname Dennis
       • instead of
       • Givenname Dennis-Oliver
    2. Germany local law defines strictly, it has to be
       • Givenname Dennis-Oliver
  • Another example:

    • The German spoken Countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland has 3 different definitions by law how to define a signature http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterschrift#Rechtliche_Aspekte. In short:

      1. Germany defines, at least 3 chars have to be readable by a 3rd party
      2. Austria law defines the signature has to be readable by a 3rd party
      3. Switzerland only defines, that someone has to see, that the user signs.
         • Conclusion: CAcert's works the latter way, seeing how an Assuree signs the CAP form before an Assurer
  • CAcert rules may differ from local rules
  • CAcert is an international Organisation, that have to take care about exceptions over exceptions.
  • After first year of AP rollout to the Community, where we've trained our Assurers the strict rules, we've moved back to the more relaxed rules, also by bringing into Account, that our Purpose of Assurance is based on the Assurance Statement we form within the Assurance process over an Assuree. One main thing that has changed since CAcert's old days is, that we have to bind the new members responsible into Arbitration, present the Assuree the CCA's R/L/O so he can decide to continue with the process. If the Assurer has any doubt he has to reduce Assurance Points or giving Zero points and file a dispute.
  • Here we have a case where the Assuree by himself started this Arbitration.
  • So it can be considered that we could brought this guy into Arbitration.
  • Since the strict rules from early 2009 moved since about starting 2010, CAcert is going more and more the relaxed way.
• 2011-03-09 (C): prefers ruling under common-law and short givenname variant
• Research on hyphens in names under Common law

  • Married and maiden names - Wikipedia

  • Legal Problems re: Signing Name with Colons & Hyphen

  • Common law name format

  • How to add a last name with a hyphen - Names

  • What are legal aspects of changing one's name to a mononym

  • Hyphenated name

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Given_name#Legality

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-barrelled_name#Written_form

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_given_names_by_state_in_the_United_States

  • Popular Names by State (USA)

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_popular_given_names

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_name

• Other topics links

  • Dispelling the Myth of Ellis Island Name Changes

  • Immigration & Name Changes: From Ellis Island to Today

  • http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/fashion/12names.html?_r=1

  • Different types of name changes ... Change of name due to Hyphenated Name

  • Change of name due to Hyphenated Name

  • USA Name Change Requirements

  • Correcting, Changing and Updating Information in Your U.S. Passport

  • Problems with Hyphens in the Name regarding PNR

  • Complex Names with Authorize Net Aim

  • How To Change Your Name Legally In Texas

  • Simple vs. Significant Name Changes (Continental Airlines policies)

  • The Spelling and Pronunciation of Shakespeare's Name / Hyphenation

  • Changing Name Changing - University of Chicago Law Review

  • Texas lawmaker: Chinese Americans should change names so "Americans" can handle them

• A statement derived from the interview with a native under common law

  • Peter-Paul would be typically written as Peter Paul in a document as systems frequently would find they can't deal with hyphens or alternatively as PeterPaul or Peterpaul or just Peter.
    Or the clerk at the time will ask which is preferred and give that. The same thing happens with double-barrelled surnames like Jones-Smith.
    In earlier days, when European immigrants arrived at ports of entry, they were encouraged to take on canonical anglicised name forms of their European names. So they generally had a chance to change the name .. and the border guard was effectively handing over new docs with new names.
    So for example, the common "von" form in German is generally dropped when transferring to English.

  • Sources given:

    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Given_name#Legality

    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-barrelled_name#Written_form

• Sources can be found, that hyphens are used with Surnames under common law, but no sources found, that gives an indication at all that hyphens were used on Givennames under Common Law. Even more, its seems to be, that hyphens are entirely dropped under Common Law on Givennames.

• Hyphens on Givennames seems to be very special for Germany culture only
  -or- Chinese
  -or- Spanish
  -or- .. -or- ..

• USA Name Change Requirements

  IF	THEN
  If you cannot legally document your name change (through court order or marriage)	You must submit the following in person at an Acceptance Facility or a Passport Agency : Your current, valid U.S. passport A completed Form DS-11, Application for a U.S. Passport Applicable "First Time" fees At least 3 public records showing your date and place of birth that show exclusive use of your assumed name for at least 5 years One recent, color photograph

Ruling

After doing long researches regarding hyphens in Givennames under common law, I've ended up with 0 results. Doing interviews with native people under common law, does not reveal any substenental name rules under common law. It seems that in the world under common law, Givennames with hyphens are non-existent. There are long articles about usage of hyphens in Surnames, but no one on usage within Givennames. No register to find with Givennames with hyphens in the common law world. So it seems, we have to define our own name rule for Givennames with hyphens.

From my own experiences with Givennames, I know about people with "2" Givennames. Ones name is Heinz-Guenter, the 2nd ones givenname is Karlheinz. The "rufname" / "roepnaam" of Heinz-Guenter is "Heinz" and the "rufname" / "roepnaam" of the 2nd one is "Karlheinz". Nobody of "Heinz-Guenter"'s relatives called him "Heinz-Guenter". All relatives and friends calls him "Heinz".

There is one exception in daily usage of this type of names, where relatives use both names: if they want to have the persons full attention, to make a statement, they'll sometimes use both names. But this still happens either with my own two givennames (two givennames w/o hyphen).

So this has some similarity with the NL common short givenname variation, where 80% of the Dutch citizens have a "roepnaam" that doesn't match the Givenname in their ID documents.

So one variation is "Mendel" to match onto "Immanuel" (case a20091118.2) is more a difference in the Givenname then "Heinz" to "Heinz-Guenter". Everybody who knows "Heinz" will match with "Heinz-Guenter" if this is his official name as written in an ID document.

The derivation is, that the hyphen doesn't count. Despite the fact this clashes the German local law, we here within CAcert are bound mainly to the common law. From the interviews with natives under common law, common law still drops hyphens.

Similiar to the spanish usage of hyphens, to only signal several names in a list of name parts to be part of the Givennames list or part of the Lastnames list, the hyphen is not realy part of the name, its a filling char that can be used optional.

1. Following the deliberations under common law, there are two possible options for the current running case:
   1. username to become: Givenname1-Givenname2
   2. username to become: Givenname1 Givenname2
   3. username to leave as is: Givenname1
2. Claimant prefers usage of short name variation
3. Claimant has been adviced that assurers may give lesser points. Claimant accepted.
4. Assurers have documented the double-givenname onto their CAP forms so this is verifyable thru arbitration.
5. Dennis is a full name under common law and no abbreviation to Dennis-Oliver, so AP is followed that at least one name is used unabbreviated

6. The ruling follows PracticeOnNames relaxed rules

So I hereby rule, that claimant can still continue use the short name variant in his user account. So there is nothing to change here.

I further declare this case as a precedent for other cases, where this question araises.

Further I rule, to add this sample into the PracticeOnNames as a default rule, to make the usage of hyphen in Givennames optional:

• For the purposes of checking the Name against PoN, a hyphen in given names is to be treated as optional.
  
  Although under some codes of law and naming customs the hyphen is considered non-optional,
  it is optional under common-law tradition (cacert's family of law), and our global
  community has many customs. These influences push us to be more inclusive than
  restrictive in naming practices. 

Principle regarding Assurance Statement is:

a) select the law under which Assuree / Assurer agrees to check the name local law or common law
b) dependent on the law, the Assurer has to give his Assurance Statement
   Assurer has to accept Assuree's decision but Assurer gives his
   Assurance Statement. In mind, that the full name as seen in users
   IdDoxs is documented onto the CAP form, it doesn't causes to decrease
   Assurance points as it fulfills the requirements for AP and Arbitration
   if the Assurer has confidence into the members identity.

Frankfurt/Main, 2011-04-12

Execution

• 2011-04-12 (A): sending ruling to (C), (CM)

• 2011-04-12 (A): added to PracticeOnNames

• 2011-04-12 (A): Case is now closed

Similiar Cases

'Hyphen Cases'

see also: PracticeOnNames

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• CategoryArbitration

• CategoryArbCaseAccountDataNameModificationsRequested