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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Duncan Gorman & Laura Sharman

Man discovers he's spelt his name wrong all his life after finding birth certificate

A grandad was dumbfounded after he discovered that he has been spelling his name wrong his entire life.

Allan Grainger's family were left in stitches on Saturday after discovering his birth certificate, and finding out he is officially named "Alan".

The factory worker, 61, was in disbelief as he and his parents have always spelt his name with the extra 'L'.

And all of his official paperwork over the years, including his wedding certificate and driving licence, have all had his name down as Allan.

The father-of-two even has two tattoos of his double 'L' spelt name on his body, including one across his hand and the other on his arm.

Allan, from Derbyshire, is now adamant that the person filling out the details on his birth certificate must have made a blunder.

However, it has gone unnoticed for over six decades.

Speaking on Tuesday, Allan said: "I couldn't believe it. I've been spelling my name like that all my life.

"When my daughter said that I thought she was winding me up. I was dumbfounded and just couldn't believe it.

"I think it was a mistake on the birth certificate because my mum wouldn't let me go through school spelling my name like that.

"I've got two tattoos with my name on it, one on my arm and one on my hand.

"I'm not going to start changing it now, I don't see what difference it would make now."

Allan's daughter, Mya Grainger, captured a video showing the birth certificate with the name section listed as 'Alan'.

The camera then pans to Allan's face who appears to be slightly confused before zooming in on his hand to reveal his tattoo, spelt 'Allan'.

Mya, 22, shared the video via TikTok on Sunday and wrote: "He's been spelling his name wrong his whole life."

The video has collected over 14,000 views and comments from viewers who shared their own birth certificate blunder experiences.

One said: "I've always written my name as one word only to find out four years ago my name is hyphenated."

Another wrote: "My nan only found out her name was actually Jean not Margaret when she needed her birth certificate to get married."

A third added: "Birthday twin. My dad spells his name different to his birth certificate too, he spells it Stephan not Stephen."

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