The Government Named This Baby 'Unakite Thirteen Hotel.' Years Later, Her Father Still Can't Change It.
He also can't get a birth certificate or Social Security number for his daughter.
A Nebraska man is struggling to get a birth certificate and Social Security number for his toddler daughter after a bureaucratic mishap left her with the nonsensical name "Unakite Thirteen Hotel" in medical records.
The girl's mother—who had struggled with drug problems, according to an NBC News story about the case—had relinquished her to the state immediately after she was born at a house in Iowa in November 2022. When the girl was handed over to foster parents, she was issued a "certificate of live birth," a provisional document that hospitals use to start the process of issuing a birth certificate. Bizarrely, the girl was given a computer-generated placeholder name: "Unakite Thirteen Hotel."
When 49-year-old Jason Kilburn—who says he had dated the girl's mother periodically over several years—learned about the baby, he took a DNA test that proved he was her biological father. When he gained custody of the girl, whom he named "Caroline Elizabeth," he learned that she didn't have a birth certificate or a Social Security number. When he called the hospital that issued Caroline's certificate of live birth, he says he received little guidance on how to get government documents for his daughter.
A convoluted bureaucratic nightmare followed. According to NBC, The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services filed a motion in juvenile court asking for an order allowing the agency "to establish a legal name for the above-named minor child as Unakite Thirteen Hotel," so they could use Caroline's computer-generated name to get a birth certificate and Social Security number.
Kilburn says he received a birth certificate with the incorrect name, but it said "for government use only." Plus, the agency never issued Caroline a Social Security number. When Kilburn's lawyer filed a motion attempting to re-open the issue, the court denied it. As a result, Kilburn hasn't been able to get Medicaid or other government benefits for his daughter. Kilburn told NBC that a recent check-up for Caroline cost him $700.
"Three or four weeks ago, she was sick. She had a fever and she was throwing up, and I had to weigh my options about what I was going to do," he said. "It really sucks to sit here and watch her suffer when there's health care out there that I can't get because of this."
"It's like she's a ghost," he told NBC. "It's been very, very taxing."
Unfortunately, Kilburn isn't the only parent who has struggled to get their child basic government paperwork after an unusual birth. In 2022, a Washington, D.C., couple chose to have an unassisted home birth and, years later, were still struggling to obtain a birth certificate for their son after the city denied their application.
"It feels like I am an absentee father even though I am here," the boy's father told The Washington Post. "I can't physically show that my son belongs to me because I have no document. And I might now have to go to court to prove my fathership to my child. And I have been here since day one. I haven't left."
