My daughter's birth certificate says her name is Maurice Christine. Go figure. We were not allowed to change the original document, only amend it, like when a name is changed, so now she has to have the original with another paper stapled to it that says her name was CHANGED from Maurice to Maurie. Kinda irritated me, since her name was never Maurice to start out with, and I kinda thought the health dept. should have people working for them who could tell a female name from a male name. I know the name Maurie is a little unusual, but Maurice is not, and nobody would EVER name their kid Maurice Christine (see, the subject STILL gets me fired up!!!). Names are always questionable. My great-aunt changed her own name apparently from Opal Sue to Opal Frances. It seemed that a couple of generations of that particular family were unhappy with what their mothers (or fathers) named them. My great-grandfather changed his last name when he came to America from Italy at age 11 without his parents. We ordered his death certificate hoping to find out what the Italian name was, and his second wife had given his father the same last name as he had. She might not have known it, or may have not wanted to give an Italian name. We did figure it out through the LDS site and some vague memories my aunt had. My husband does not know his mother's parents names, or his father's mother's name. As far as cause of death is concerned, that sometimes is a little misleading even today. My Grandmother died as the result of a massive stroke, but since she lingered in a coma for a week, the cause of her death was recorded as respiratory failure. Debbie << I just received a new death certificate that had the first name misspelled, so it is a common problem even today. >>