Hi

I’m in sort of an odd situation. I arrived in Norway this August as a student from India. The part of India where I am from, surnames are not really a big thing (they exists, but it’s never mandatory in any forms as far as I can tell). So my passport lists my entire name (it has two words) in the **Given name(s)** [considered as first name] and the **Surname** field is blank. Here’s a *random* Indian passport image [Link](https://doc-template.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Indian-Passport.jpg). (As opposed to this picture, my passport has nothing written in the surname).

When I was filling the university’s admission form, the admissions office asked me to write ***’xx’*** in the surname field to indicate its absence. On the other hand, the UDI Student Visa form said to use a ***’+’*** in the surname to indicate its absence. *However*, when my Folkeregisteret document arrived, my full name was repeated in both the *fornavn* and *etternavn. (So if my name is A B on my passport, according to my Norwegian ID my name is A B A B)*

In summary, I have these names ascribed to me (assume my name is A B):

UDI – A B +

University – A B XX

Folkeregisteret – A B A B

**So a couple of questions:**

– Can I get my name changed in the Folkeregisteret so that it only contains my given name as is?

– I am trying to open a bank account. After talking to 45 mins with an Sbanken representative, they said I have to type my name exactly as in folkeregisteret (which is twice). But the issue then is that it won’t match with my student ID (which is A B *XX*). They also said that they won’t be able to change the name later unless I got it changed in the folkeregisteret.

– Will it affect my BankID? Suppose I make an account now, and then later get my name changed, will I need to make another BankID?

– If anyone was in a similar situation, any thing that I should look out for?

I understand it’s a very specific situation. The reason I’m asking here is since everyone that I spoke to (including other banks), they seem to give a different answer. So just trying to see if anyone has gone though similar issues.

Thanks for all the help! 🙂

4 comments

  1. To me it seems that no matter what you do you will get into a bureaucratic mess.

    So I would start with what is probably most important for you to get on with your daily life in Norway: Getting a bank account.

    Then you can go to Folkeregisteret and get your name changed as necessary.

    Then you can go back to the bank, and get stuff updated there. But most banks link stuff to your “Fødselsnummer”, or more likely a D-number in your case, so unless they for some unlikely reason want to be really stubborn, it should be relatively easy to get them to update the names in their database too. People change names all the time, and any serious institution takes this into account. So it’s more about filling out the right forms or clicking the correct buttons on their web page.

  2. I’ve gotten a name change but I’m a norwegian citizen so there might be a bit more paperwork involved for you, I wouldn’t know for sure. What I did was send in my name change and wait for the confirmation of it being changed, then I just called my bank so ask if I needed to do something and they said it would update in their systems automatically but I would need to get a new bank card. If I were you I’d just get the account first then change the name after. You might have to sign some papers but name changes are common and it shouldn’t be too much of an hassle

  4. Repeating your name was not done by mistake. You need to have both a given name and a surname in folkeregisteret. Even if you do not actually have a surname. If you only have one name then repeating it is how Folkeregisteret will adapt that to the Norwegian system.

    You can change your name in Folkeregisteret, but not to what you want. Changing your name may require that you get your Indian name changed first, and then Folkeregisteret can be updated to match your new name.

    It is not a problem that your bank account does not match your student ID.

    You don’t need to do anything with your bank account or bank ID if you change your name, they will automatically start using the new name. You will need to get a new bank card, but you can keep using the old card until you get a new one.

    My advice is that you accept that your name will be repeated for government and banking purposes while you are in Norway.

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