Croatia is famous for its bureaucracy, but did you know that having too many names can also be a problem. A marathon paper trail comes to end on June 10, 2017.
I will be honest, I have absolutely no idea why they did it. I am a pretty simple guy, not an impression you would perhaps get from hearing my name.
For some reason, my parents decided to give me three names to go with my surname, with the result that the world has come to know me as Paul David Raymond Bradbury.
A mouthful.
And of zero use whatsoever, except for one situation.
"Are you related to the famous writer, Ray Bradbury?" It is a question I get at least once a week.
"My father," I reply, showing them my glorious third name in my passport when I have it with me.
It doesn't quite work if I don't have my passport, as my full name on my Croatian ID card is Paul David Raym Bradbury. When planning the ID cards, the Croatian authorities obviously hadn't bargained for fat Brits not only staying in the country, but staying long enough to assume ID cards.
Mr. Raym. It is a name I have been called more than once. I quite like it.
The Raym Name has never been an issue, apart perhaps from being slightly bemused as various officials decided that my surname was David, or Raymond, or Raym, but rarely Bradbury. But life in Dalmatia is very relaxed and names are not so important. Most people are known more by their nicknames than real names, so as long as the authorities get somewhere close, that should be enough.
But when you move to a place where they take their bureaucracy more seriously, things get more interesting. Somewhere like Varazdin County, for example, where things are a lot more efficient and ordered, as I have already written.
Paul David Raymond Bradbury, the passport holder, and Paul David Raym Bradbury, the Croatian ID holder moved up north and were soon joined by a third entity, Paul David Bradbury, as pointed out by my daughters' new school.
Apparently, according to the school who were trying to efficiently record the paperwork for my children's new educational home, they pointed out that in some parts of Croatian bureaucracy, my beloved Raymond had been obliterated from history, and I was a mere Paul David.
Again, not a problem for me, but a very large one for the school. These kids had three fathers! And in order to do things correctly, things had to change, or they would not be able to graduate from the year at school.
How to find a missing Raymond in The Beautiful Croatia? My wife took to the mission with gusto, contacting the registrar's office in Hvar Town, where we discovered the fate of poor Raymond. The official court translator had omitted poor Raymond on our marriage certificate translation, and I was thus condemned to a Raymond-less marriage. How to solve the situation?
Only the registrar in Hvar Town can solve the problem, we were told. No problem, let's talk to the man and solve things this very afternoon!
Ah...
The most important man in all Croatia for me at that moment was unavailable. He had been off work on sick leave. But now he was back. But on holiday. And then, rather than coming back, he would retire. And then there would be a tender which would last several months to choose his replacement, and by the time the whole process was decided and our case addressed, my girls could probably have graduated from university in another country. But there was nothing to be done - only the registrar could solve the problem.
Perhaps, suggested one helpful employee at the Hvar Registry Office, perhaps you should call the office in Rijeka, where the girls were born. Perhaps there is something they could do.
Desperate and rapidly losing any semblance of hope, the call to Rijeka was made, which was met with one of those astonishing moments in Croatian bureaucracy which happens to the average resident perhaps twice in a generation - a local official who not only understands the problem, but has creative solutions and the desire to follow through. A fax here, a letter then, some third party scanning, and within a miraculous ten days, our shiny new, Raymond-friendly documentation is in place.
Ms. Zeljka Dukic-Srdoc, from the Rijeka registry office, I salute you and thank you for your extraordinary efforts. If more public officials followed your example, what a country we could have...
We were lucky to have found such a helpful and dedicated person, so the moral of the story is - don't give your kids too many names if there is a chance they may end up in Croatia.
