The Latvian language has some special grammatical rules, which meant that nearly all Russian names were changed to conform to the those rules. For example:
- Иван Петров / Ivan Petrov - became Ivans Petrovs
At that point, ethnic Russians comprised roughly half of the Latvian population. The change of spelling has been viewed as a hostile act by the ethnic Russian community as it signalled forceful assimilation. Latvia has been taken to the UN court, where it lost, but is still refusing to comply. The bottom line is that it remains impossible to spell Russian names in their original Russian form (without the "s" endings) in Latvian passports.
I have now been living in the UK for over a decade and have applied for a naturalisation certificate. Although my passport name is "Ivans", I have used my original birth name "Ivan" in all aspects of life in the UK, since I figured nobody outside Latvia should care about Latvian grammar. "Ivan" is used on my UK degree, UK driving licence, UK bank account, UK NI number/HMRC account etc, etc...
I understand that a naturalisation certificate is issued only in the passport name. But I have heard, almost as a rumour, that it is possible to restore the spelling of a foreign name to a preferred form on applying for passport. Is that true, and if so, how to do it?