Earlier this week, a dad’s story about his inability to get a Social Security number and official birth certificate for his daughter went viral. Nebraska dad Jason Kilburn has been unable to get health insurance or child care for his daughter because of this issue. To make it even more complicated, his daughter’s legal name is listed as “Unakite Thirteen Hotel” even though he calls her Caroline. Shortly after the story went viral, however, the dad received some good news.
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Now, the 2-year-old has a Social Security number.
During his initial interview with NBC News, Jason detailed his attempts to get a social security number for his daughter, who was born in November 2022. He said the whole process has been “very, very taxing.”
Interestingly, a day after NBC News published the story, the Social Security Administration contacted Jason. The next day, on February 26, 2025, Jason went to a meeting at the Social Security Administration’s Omaha field office and walked away with a Social Security number for his daughter.
This is definitely progress, but not all of the issues have been resolved.
Without a Social Security number, Jason’s daughter Caroline was previously not approved for Medicaid and could not access other social services. This put Jason in an extremely difficult position when she got sick. Taking his daughter to see a pediatrician cost him about $700 without insurance, so when Caroline started feeling ill, the dad said he “had to weigh my options about what I was going to do.”
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Now that Caroline has a Social Security number, Jason told NBC News that he feels “so relieved.” That number, however, was not issued under the name Caroline. Instead, because of how the child’s name is listed, the Social Security number was issued to “Unakite.”
‘Unakite Thirteen Hotel’ is reportedly a ‘computer-generated name.’
After giving birth, Caroline’s mother relinquished custody to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Jason and Caroline’s mother were not together at the time, and he didn’t know about his daughter, NBC News reported. After later proving paternity, Jason obtained custody rights, but he learned that his daughter didn’t have a birth certificate. Instead, she only has a certificate of live birth. On it, her name is listed as “Unakite Thirteen Hotel.”
The dad will try to get a proper birth certificate for his daughter.
He told NBC News that the process will be less challenging now that Caroline has a Social Security number – even if it’s not under the name he calls her by. The dad admitted, though, that getting Caroline a Social Security number under the name “Unakite” is “obviously not the most desirable way to go about it.”
Still, in light of all the challenges he faced before, Caroline’s Social Security number under the name “Unakite” still feels like “such a victory.”
“There’s mechanisms in place to change names,” he added.
Before, it felt like his daughter was basically a ‘ghost.’
Before getting the number for his daughter, Jason described not being able to access health insurance, speech therapy, or child care services. He emphasized that he was not asking for anything special or unusual. “This is stuff she’s entitled to as any American is,” he told NBC News.
