In the year 2024, 3363 applications for a change of name and/or surname were submitted, of which 3101 applications were approved. Eleven applications were rejected. Another 251 are under examination, the Public Services Agency (ASP) said in a reply to IPN.
According to the ASP, the most common reasons given by people applying for a name change are women’s desire to take their husband’s name, if she did not opt to change her name at the time of marriage registration, or the desire to revert to the surname held prior to the registration of a marriage, if this was not done at the time of divorce registration.
Other reasons relate to the wish to use the surname with which the child was baptized or to use the surname of the person who participated in the upbringing and education of the child (step-parent) but cannot acquire it by filiation, or the wish to use the surname of one of the applicant’s ascendants (grandparents).
The ASP specifies that a change of surname and/or forename is refused in the case of persons who have an unsolved criminal record.
Likewise, the registration of a new name is refused if the person requests to transliterate his/her surname and/or forename in Latin characters according to the spelling rules of a foreign language. For example, a request to change the surname from Cojocaru to Kozhokaru.
Similarly, the request to use the surname of the former spouse will be rejected if a person, when registering the divorce, has requested to revert to the surname used before the marriage was registered.
The surname is acquired by descent and is changed as a result of a change in a person’s marital status as a result of the registration of a marriage or divorce, and at the request of a person, in accordance with the law. The change of the surname and/or forename is strictly regulated by several legal provisions, which is why it cannot be considered as an absolute and unconditional right of the natural person.
