Passport Name Issue

I had my Naturalisation Ceremony in December and applied for my passport at the start of this month.

Last week I got a call from the passport office telling me that there was an issue. Essentially my naturalisation certificate has my last name as 'MC CONNELL' and they said they can only issue the passport in that name as opposed to without the space 'MCCONNELL'.

They suggested that I get UKVI to correct my naturalisation certificate, but that will take 8 more weeks of not having a passport and I have an important trip planned at the end of March.

So my options I guess are:

1) to let them issue my UK passport with the space in my last name (my first US passport had the space and I never had an issue, but my recent renewal had no space)

2) get my naturalisation certificate updated and start my passport application over after my March trip

3) see if I can get them to put both names on my passport as a note (a friend had her middle name on her Irish passport and got them to add a note saying she had another passport issued with a slightly different name)

Anybody have any experience in this area? How much of an issue would any of these options be?

Thanks for reading, I know it's a bit of a long one!

Could you not travel on your US passport?  If you've sent it away, you can get another passport at the embassy if you can prove that you have travel booked.  Bit of a pain, but I've done it. 

 I've also entered the UK on my US passport only during the period while I was waiting for my UK passport.  If you've had the ceremony, they have to let you in because you are a UK citizen.   In my experience, the border guards are happy to let you in, especially if you act proud and happy to be a UK citizen.   

You can also contact your MP for help speeding things up, especially if your travel is extremely important.   I flat out told my MP the truth that I was only trying to go back to the US for a kite festival and it certainly was NOT a life or death situation, but mysteriously my finished passport arrived just when I needed it anyway and maybe she helped it along. 

Maybe I’m being thick while down with chemo fog….  But will a space matter?  Why did they say it’ll matter? 

Apparently the reason it matters is that newer my US passport has no space — meaning my passports wouldn't match.

Seems like such a little thing to me, but what we've decided on is that they'll return my US passport to me while I'm awaiting my corrected Naturalisation Certificate and put my passport application on hold and I'll return both the corrected certificate and my passport when I'm back in early April.

Apparently the reason it matters is that newer my US passport has no space — meaning my passports wouldn't match.

Seems like such a little thing to me, but what we've decided on is that they'll return my US passport to me while I'm awaiting my corrected Naturalisation Certificate and put my passport application on hold and I'll return both the corrected certificate and my passport when I'm back in early April.

How did you resolve this? The name matching thing became a problem for me in 2021 when I needed to renew my UK passport. My US passport had my middle initial and my UK passport did not. I filled in the renewal form for the UK which had first, middle, and last name all as mandatory to fill in. They then came back and said we can't do that as your US passport doesn't match. I said the D stands for middle name, which should be obvious, and I wouldn't have asked for my middle name to go on the passport except that your form wouldn't let me not fill in the middle name. They said they have to match perfectly so my options were to have my name changed to Carla D Tate by deed poll (!!!!!!) or go to the US embassy and get my full three names on my US passport. So I had to go to London and pay to get my US passport name changed so that the Home Office would my name on my UK passport -- this even though my naturalisation certificate from the UK literally says Carla D Tate, but that was in 2007, back in the day when one could sign one's name in any variation and office bods were bright enough to know that CD Tate, Carla D Tate, Carla Denice Tate, and Carla Tate were all the same person, if they had the same passport number, issued by them!

I had to fill out a corrections form for my Naturalization Certificate, wait 12 weeks for my corrected certificate from the Home Office and then send it back to the Passport Office.

Luckily the Passport Office sent back my current US passport for the interim and put my application on hold.

I finally got my UK passport in May!

I had to fill out a corrections form for my Naturalization Certificate, wait 12 weeks for my corrected certificate from the Home Office and then send it back to the Passport Office.

Luckily the Passport Office sent back my current US passport for the interim and put my application on hold.

I finally got my UK passport in May!

I hope your US and UK passports name match or you'll be jumping through hoops again in a few years.

They do now thank goodness!