Rejected petition: Allow accented and diacritic letters on UK birth/marriage/death certificates
Rejected on
Update the General Register Office systems to allow accents and diacritic marks (é, ü, ñ, etc.) on official birth, marriage, and death certificates. This would ensure names are recorded exactly as chosen by parents or individuals.
Current systems strip accents from names, forcing parents to register inaccurate spellings. This affects families with Welsh, Irish, European, and other heritage names. Supporting accented letters would modernise UK recordkeeping, reflect cultural identity, and bring the UK in line with other countries.
Why was this petition rejected?
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The General Register Office (GRO) policy is to allow these characters on birth certificates, including in relation to corrections to certificates that are requested within three months of a child’s birth on production of appropriate supporting evidence.
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