My Birth Certificate and the Origin of My Name

Although I am aware that members of Congress are not required to be natural-born citizens, I want to be transparent and get out in front of any questions about my place of birth that might arise during my campaign. My mother emigrated from China not long before my birth, but I am a natural-born citizen of the United States as evidenced by my birth certificate below. For privacy, I have redacted several elements, although I may make a complete copy available to journalists upon request if needed to verify the veracity of this document. Although this birth certificate only shows that I was born in Volusia County (the entirety of which is included within Florida’s 6th Congressional district), my exact place of birth was Halifax Hospital (now known as Halifax Health Medical Center).

Richard Thripp's birth certificate

In addition, some may question the origin of my name. First, my grandmother named my father Richard after Ricky Nelson, not knowing Nelson’s actual name was Ricky, not Richard. Second, my father gave me his first and last name but a different middle name: Xichao, after my grandfather in China (pronounced “see chow” as in I see food and I eat it). Third, the last name, Thripp, is pronounced like the number “three,” and originates from the fact that my father disliked his family and his original last name, which was Parrish. He looked for a new last name and chose the name Thripp after coming across it in a book at the Ormond Beach library in 1985, and was successful in petitioning a judge to allow him to change his last name as shown in this court document from January 22, 1986 (which can be independently verified by public records request):

Richard Thripp's father's name change

Thripp is often mispronounced and misspelled as Tripp. I was born in 1991 as a natural-born Thripp with no court petition required. From 2010 to 2016 I went by Richard Parrish on Facebook for privacy and due to disliking the Thripp name, but I returned to using Richard Thripp as my name on Facebook on my 25th birthday on August 17, 2016, which was subsequent to completing my Applied Learning and Instruction M.A. and several days before beginning my Education Ph.D. program that I completed in December 2019.

Note that I am estranged from my father due to vaccinating my son, as explained in this article: I Once Was a Republican, But Now I Know Better.

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