A GRANDAD was left ‘dumbfounded’ after his birth certificate revealed he’s been spelling his name wrong his entire life.
Allan Grainger’s family were left in stitches on Saturday after discovering the 61-year-old’s birth certificate and finding out he is officially named “Alan”.
The factory worker from Derbyshire was in disbelief as he and his parents have been spelling his name with the extra two ‘L’s’ his whole life.
And all of his official paperwork over the years – including his wedding certificate and driving licence – have all had the father-of-two’s name down as Allan.
The father-of-two even has two tattoos of his name on his body – one across his hand and the other on his arm – both with the added ‘L’.
Allan 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 today 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.”
Alan’s daughter, Mya Grainger, captured a video showing the birth certificate with the name section listed as ‘Alan’.
The camera then pans to Alan’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 to TikTok on Sunday, writing: “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.”
