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As I understand it, if the child is not stillborn and is considered alive for even a few minutes after birth, it can receive a Social Security number. And most parents would want this to happen, because in order to claim a child as a dependent on your federal income tax return you must be able to give the child's Social Security number. It was only about 40 years ago when the USA income tax authorities began requiring that, and before that many people did not register with the Social Security system until they were teenagers and had their first job. But once that became the requirement for declaring a dependent on the income tax forms, almost all children receive social security numbers within a few months of their birth -- which enables the SSA to bring out its yearly baby name list in May, about the time when almost all children born the previous year would be in its records.

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By the way, this change in the rules means that data from the social security records from before 40 years ago really reflects the names people were using as adults, not necessarily the official birth names their parents gave them. I believe this is why some short forms like Joe seem to occur on the early 20th century social security lists in much higher ranks than would be the case if actual birth certificate data was being used.

This message was edited 5/16/2023, 10:31 AM