Can a original birth certificate be changed?

(This answer only pertains to the United States.)

For non-adopted people, the answer is NO, the original birth certificate cannot be changed.

However, in cases of adoption, original birth certificates are changed--or new "amended" ones are issued--to reflect the adoptive parents' information rather than that of the birth parents. In an overwhelming majority of states, these original birth certificates--the actual, truthful record of a person's birth--are then sealed from both public record AND from the individual for whom the birth certificate was issued.

It is not uncommon for an adoptee's amended birth certificate to list entirely different information for time, place, and even date of birth from that on the actual (original) birth certificate/record, though this practice occurs far less frequently now than it did for previous generations.

Another important note about altered/amended birth certificates: under post-9/11 laws, if a birth certificate was issued more than one year after the date of birth, the individual can, and likely will, be denied a U.S. Passport.