Society: more freedom in the family name

The new name right brings spouses, families and children significantly more freedom in choosing the last name. For Hesse’s registry offices, the reform means additional challenges. On the one hand, the number of inquiries increased significantly, as a dpa survey showed. On the other hand, according to the first experience of the registrars, there are still legal ambiguities in the new rules that have applied since May 1, 2025.

Among other things, spouses can now lead a common double name with or without a hyphen. So far, only one spouse has been able to do this and had to insert a hyphen. Divorce and stepchildren may easily take over a name change from mother or father. Adult children can switch from the last name of a parent to the last name of the other parent.

Darmstadt recorded a significant increase in the applications for name changes, as a spokesman said. This year there were already 176 cases until the beginning of June. There were 79 applications in the same period of the previous year. Up to five employees, including the management of the registry office, are currently employed. « The exchange for this is very time -consuming, » said the speaker.

More newborns get double names

Many applications would come from divorced spouses of divorced and not adult children who usually wanted to accept the mother’s birth name, it was said from the Darmstadt town hall. When notification of newborns, the possibility of a double name is increasingly chosen, consisting of the name of the father and that of the mother.

The Wiesbaden registry office also reports on an increased number of inquiries, for more than 100 concrete change requests there is now an appointment. A spokesman said that the spouse’s double name of the spouses is requested with existing marriage. According to the experience from the state capital, the law has regulatory gaps that do not allow a clear interpretation. « In some cases, clarification is required. »

Registry office Kassel reports on «Run»

In May 2025, around 70 people have already applied for a change in the marriage or birth name, the city announced. There were 246 cases throughout 2024. « If the current run stays that way, one can speak of a good tripling of the explanations. » The city added most often to a new surname of children in which the marriage of the parents had been dissolved. Applications from adults for a new family name also occur more often.

Even before the law came into force, there were significantly more inquiries about possible name changes, the head of the Frankfurt registry office, Andrea Hart reported. « We prepared ourselves very well and formed a working group. » Frankfurt offers its citizens a comprehensive online service with information and contact form.

According to Hart, the Frankfurt registry office assumes that the higher demand will remain when changing the name. In the life of people, new situations always arise that could arouse the desire for another surname – for example when the parents were divorced.

The changes in the everyday work of the registry office had already started well before May 1st, since registrations and information discussions took place in advance, said a spokeswoman for the city of Marburg. « This is how the registry offices were faced with the situation of declaring the changes in the law in advance without having already existed without comments or administrative regulations. »

What applies to old cases?

Due to the obligation to consult and the diverse new possibilities, the time required is many times higher than before, explained the spokeswoman. With the introduction of new laws, the question of the possibilities for old cases almost always arises. For example, whether an marriage name could be exchanged from the name of the man to the name of the woman if the marriage had been closed before May 2025? Answers to such questions often have to be subject to reservation.

Name configurator as possible help

« A change in the law is always a new challenge, » says the Offenbach city administration. There were training courses of the Federal Association of Civil Office for the new name right. The association also put a name configurator online, which in case of doubt can help determine an marriage name.