Specify the legal name to be shown on Canadian Passport

[zondahh]

Hi,

Can I specify the legal name to be shown on my Canadian Passport that will be different from what is shown on my original home country's passport?

(1)
For example, the name on my original home country's passport is a Chinese name. There is also a "Also Known As" English name that is more westernized.
If I intend to combine the Chinese and westernized English name and have them shown on one line in the legal name on my Canadian passport, will it be accepted?
How do I make sure it's done? When I submit my scanned home country's passport pages for Citizenship application and during the Citizenship application, what do I need to do to request the name to be specified?

(2)
Best practices? What is your suggestion or best practice on what kind of name to use on your Canadian passport? If you are from France, Italy, Russia, do you use your French, Italian, or Russian name on your Canadian passport? Is there a second line to put your nickname or second name? Is this a personal preference?

I am about to meet the eligibility of applying for Canadian Citizenship soon.

 

[armoured]

Hi,

Can I specify the legal name to be shown on my Canadian Passport that will be different from what is shown on my original home country's passport?

(1)
For example, the name on my original home country's passport is a Chinese name. There is also a "Also Known As" English name that is more westernized.
If I intend to combine the Chinese and westernized English name and have them shown on one line in the legal name on my Canadian passport, will it be accepted?
How do I make sure it's done? When I submit my scanned home country's passport pages for Citizenship application and during the Citizenship application, what do I need to do to request the name to be specified?

(2)
Best practices? What is your suggestion or best practice on what kind of name to use on your Canadian passport? If you are from France, Italy, Russia, do you use your French, Italian, or Russian name on your Canadian passport? Is there a second line to put your nickname or second name? Is this a personal preference?

I am about to meet the eligibility of applying for Canadian Citizenship soon.

1) I'd refer you to look here:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/change-name.html

Especially the point "dropping or inverting given names". This is unfortunately a bit vague: 'you may ask for your given name(s) to be slightly different on your passport.'

In practice, from some personal experience, they can be quite flexible about leaving out middle names, short forms of some names, changing the order, etc. (Not saying any of this applies to last names)

I do not have specific experience with Chinese names etc - but I'd guess that if names and order you're requesting is plausible and supported in some official documents, they'd probably go along with it. (Some additional supporting like correspondence might help - because in much of Canada, old common law approach, you could 'change your name' by commonly and consistently using it - so someone with the name eg 'Abdullah' could literally change their name by just using Andrew everywhere; note this is less common now; and to some degree the old common law approach was less about official docs but rather ensuring eg 'Andrew' couldn't pretend it wasn't him because his official docs say otherwise. Eg, partly liability purposes and responsibility before others.)

But note: it's more likely Canadian authorities are going to recognize "Jon" is short for "Jonathan." Less likely they'll recognize transliteration differences or shortforms that are less common - but if it's pretty simple, don't worry about it (eg Aleksandr = Alexander = Alex is easy, Alexander = Sasha not so well known).

And of course keep in mind - this can cause confusion when travelling abroad. Basically same issue, and if you have multiple docs with same spelling etc you'll probably be okay.

But if you REALLY want a specific name and no problems etc - legally change your name. It's not that difficult.

2) Can't speak universally, but from exposure to French and Russian names - for the purposes here, not an issue. French - use or not given names esp middle names as you wish - for those who have long list of middle names, normal to drop for passport purposes. French - no-one's going to cause an issue if Jean-Marie goes by Jean or Jean-Robert goes by Robert or even Bob.

Russian - apart from transliteration issues (not that complex really)*, only issue is the middle name/patronymic - and a personal choice whether to keep or drop it for passport purposes. (I know some Russian passports issued recently commonly include the patronymic in Cyrillic (Russian), and leave it out in English lines - but I can't say for certain that this is a universal or required practice.) Canada definitely does not require inclusion of the patronymic / middle name.

*Small historical issue - Soviet passports for a long time used only the French transliterations, but they switched to English transliterations long ago - in the eighties or 90s. This can or used to result in some big differences for family names, eg 'CH' sound in French is "TCH", so Chichikov = Tchitchikov. Some have kept the French translit out of habit or historical reasons.
And sometimes you'll meet Russians who preferred the French translit for other reasons, eg preferring Chitin (actually soft French ch = sh in English but English transliteration Shitin has an obvious problem).

 

[bellaluna]

How do I make sure it's done? When I submit my scanned home country's passport pages for Citizenship application and during the Citizenship application, what do I need to do to request the name to be specified?

Agree with what armoured said up top. Legally change your name in your province, and when you get it done, update your application so that the citizenship certificate can be issued in your new name and it would be more straightforward for the passport.
(Of course this also entails updating everyone else, licenses, bank, etc.)

Best practices? What is your suggestion or best practice on what kind of name to use on your Canadian passport? If you are from France, Italy, Russia, do you use your French, Italian, or Russian name on your Canadian passport? Is there a second line to put your nickname or second name? Is this a personal preference?

I am about to meet the eligibility of applying for Canadian Citizenship soon.

Can also corroborate what armoured said about flexibility with middle names. My PR card / citizenship certificate / passport don't have it, I also know a few family friends with this case.

There are only 2 lines in the passport for names: surname and given name. People who wish to keep their second/middle names will cram them all in the given name space.