No, your legal name is not a corporation. That claim is based on a discredited conspiracy theory.

The capitalization used in standard birth certificates issued across the U.S. is nefarious, according to some online claims. 

"Your legal name is in fact a corporation," read a Feb. 27 Instagram post. "This is why you always see your name written in ALL CAPS."

The post, which featured a video clip of someone documenting a newborn’s footprint, said a birth certificate "is actually a death certificate" and people are all considered "legally dead." 

The caption sowed further confusion, claiming that people are considered "legally dead" at birth because parents sign children over to the government as corporations. 

"When we’re born the government created this corporation in our name written in all CAPS, replacing it with the living spiritual flesh & blood you, so they can do business with us," the caption said. "This is why 99% of the time anything from a corporation (corpse-ration) has your name written in all caps, your bills, ID, birth certificate — it’s your strawman."

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The post’s use of the term "strawman" caught our attention.Promoters of the straw man conspiracy theory believe that with every birth certificate, the U.S. government sets up a fake identity or corporate trust in a newborn’s name. As a result, that person’s rights — and their obligations, including tax bills — are split between the physical person and the ones assigned to the baby’s fake identity or corporate account, which theory adherents call a "straw man." 

PolitiFact found no evidence supporting the discredited theory that a person’s name is a corporation, and false claims linked to this straw man theory have previously been fact-checked. 

Promoters of the theory sometimes argue that they’re not required to pay taxes "because their tax bill is made out to a legal entity with a well-funded bank account that shares their name but isn’t actually them," explained one History.com article. 

People trying to avoid paying their taxes cite the theory frequently enough that the Internal Revenue Service has addressed it.

"A taxpayer cannot avoid income tax on the erroneous theory that the government has created a separate and distinct entity or ‘straw man,’ in place of the taxpayer and that the taxpayer is not responsible for the tax obligations of the ‘straw man,’" read a 2005 IRS bulletin. "This argument has no merit and is frivolous."

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stated on March 24, 2024 in a Instagram post

Video shows Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Biblical figures were “all Black.”

In a 2006 bulletin, the IRS addressed capitalization: "The use of all uppercase letters, italics, abbreviations or other formats of an individual’s name in government documents has no significance whatsoever," the agency wrote.

Birth certificates and other important, official documents — sometimes referred to as vital records — often use upper case letters. 

Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services explained why on its website: "This common administrative practice is done to better sort and locate vital records and to enhance the clarity and reporting of information through a standardized style."

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said that formatting, including any capitalization, used on forms is meant to reduce confusion and ensure clarity for people reading the documents. The State Department issues official documents related to U.S. consular births and deaths abroad.

For documents such as passports, international standards for displaying data help streamline and speed up administrative procedures during travel. The International Civil Aviation Organization recommends using uppercase letters for names. 

The straw man theory is often promoted by members of the sovereign citizen movement, a group that rejects the authority of government entities and considers its members exempt from laws. In 2011, the FBI said some sovereign citizens’ actions are "quirky," rather than criminal, or are seemingly minor infractions. 

"However, a closer look at sovereign citizens’ more severe crimes, from financial scams to impersonating or threatening law enforcement officials, gives reason for concern," the FBI wrote.

An Instagram post claimed, "Your legal name is in fact a corporation," which is why people’s names are written in capital letters on official documents. 

We found no evidence supporting this baseless claim, which is linked to a persistent and unfounded conspiracy theory. To standardize documents, people’s names are often listed in capital letters on official documents such as birth certificates and passports. 

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

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