[tsimionescu]

> I don't quite understand why it would be a problem for birth certificates. Surely the date of birth noted on them doesn't have to be the date they're first printed?

I don't think people cared (or care even today) what is the date written on the birth certificate. And if the state really cares, they won't accept some date they're being told: using the current date is safer.

[vintermann]

Why would the state trust their citizens so little? Where I come from births were registered by (Lutheran) priests for hundreds of years, and they had no problem accepting and noting the birth date the parents provided. Why would they not trust it, why would parents lie?

[narag]

A friend named his daughter Andrea and registered her... before she was born. There was some benefits that expired at the end of the year.

At that time, there was no easy way to know the fetus' sex, so he chose female in a hunch and used a name that is female in Spanish, but male in other languages, so he could later allege an error.

She was born in January, a couple of weeks later than the certificate.