Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
The father of an American toddler with a computer-generated name is fighting to get it changed from Unakite Thirteen Hotel to Caroline.
The two-year-old’s father Jason Kilburn was separated from Caroline’s mother when she was born in Iowa in November 2022, and he only learned of her birth later.
As a newborn, Caroline was put into foster care before Kilburn was awarded full custody.
They both now live in Nebraska.
It was only when he got full custody of Caroline that he realised she didn’t have a full birth certificate or a social security number, making it impossible to enroll her in daycare, or get health insurance.
“It’s like she’s a ghost,” Kilburn told NBC News. The family is now in legal limbo. Kilburn’s lawyer Joshua Livingston branded the ordeal a “circuitous, bureaucratic loop”.
