I am not necessarily arguing with you as to the name to use. If the name on the birth certificate and SSN is his or her legal name, that's the logical name name to use, it would seem.

That being said, the birth certificate is submitted as one form of primary evidence of U.S. citizenship, not as primary evidence of one's legal name. If it were strictly a name issue, then you'd certainly see married women with passports with their maiden names, and the legal name change individuals, etc. The name on the DL isn't necessarily a irrelevant issue, as you still have to show it as one of the choices for primary identification. The name on the SSN isn't irrelevant either as it's a secondary form of identification. Those of us with name "issues" get to show up with our birth certificate, DL, marriage license, court orders etc. to allow the clerk to verify our legal name in spite of the differences in names on the various documents.

Just my .02, though likely worth far less.