Change your first name?

07-02-2023

On Jan. 22, 2023, Kylie Jenner announced that her infant son, who was named Wolf when he was born on 2-2-22, will now be named Aire (https://www.ad.nl/sterren/kylie-jenner-deelt-voor-het-eerst-fotos-en-naam-van-zoontje~af903921/). The reason given for the first name change was that Wolf did not fit the little son.

In recent years, I have heard several reasons why clients wanted to change their names. For example, a girl came to me whose name was perfectly normal in her country of origin, but in the Netherlands it was a swear word and she was bullied with it. Another girl had a name that was very common in Friesland. Now that she lived in the West of the Netherlands, she was bullied with it because it could be used to make nasty rhymes in Dutch. Another client, a boy, had been given a very pronounceable name in his country of origin. In the Netherlands, however, he always had to spell his name and repeat it several times. The name was also often mispronounced.

In the above cases, I filed a first name change request with the court on behalf of the clients and the first name change was approved.

It is not possible to give a list of reasons that are approved by a judge. However, the judge does assess whether there is a sufficiently compelling interest in changing the given name. This interest must outweigh the social interest served by continuous naming (=name consistency). Other examples of legally relevant reasons to have a first name changed may include:

1. Error in birth registration: first name forgotten, incorrect spelling, spelling error;
2. Regret for the chosen given names;
3. First name is associated with an emotionally heavy past, e.g. (mental) abuse and/or bullying;
4. A given name that differs from the official given name has been used for a long time;
5. In the case of transgenderism or transsexuality: the name no longer fits the person;
6. The official first name is normal abroad, but not in the Netherlands;
7. The first name does not fit a (changed) religion.

By the way, you cannot just choose any other name: ridiculous names, swear words, names consisting of very many names and existing surnames (unless it is also an existing first name) will be refused.

A well-known example is Elon Musk, who had named his infant son X Æ A-12. He eventually had to change it to X AE A-XII, which was approved by the government in California. The question is whether the latter name would have been accepted in the Netherlands.

Are you also thinking of having your first name changed? Please contact Mrs. Y.M. Bérénos. She can discuss the (im)possibilities with you.