The New Naming Right

The new German naming right involving some changes with respect to the right to use a name will come into effect on 1 May. It is the main objective of the legislative change to choose one‘s name more easily and flexibly. One of the new regulations offering further flexibility allows both married partners to use double names with or without hyphen. These changes can even be made in existing marriages. Even children will be allowed to use double names. Simplified adaptations also work the other way round: In case of divorces, family names of children will be changed without complicated procedures and tailored to the respective personal situations. Furthermore, children reaching legal age may once and within certain limits decide on their first names. The new law also includes special regulations for national minorities allowing them to keep up name right traditions and the opportunity to select gender-specific forms of married names.

It is certain that this legislative change will get things moving in the world of names and will inevitably involve effects on family research. It is also exciting to wonder what genealogy would look like if the name right had already been regulated like this in the past.

What do you think?

What opportunities or challenges do you see arising from the new naming law with regard to genealogical research? What impact do you expect it to have on family history research?

We look forward to your thoughts and observations on this in our forum at: Das neue Namensrecht | Archion Forum