Judgment of the District Court of The Hague dated January 28, 2021

The petitioner originally comes from Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, it is sometimes customary to name a child after a good friend or a family member. Naming a child after grandparents is quite common. If parents name their child after a friend, it’s seen as a way to seal the strong bond between them.

At his birth, the petitioner was named after an uncle. Unfortunately, this uncle passed away shortly after the petitioner’s birth, which led to his current first name falling out of use. In that sense, the name lost its specific meaning. From a young age, the petitioner has been using a self-chosen nickname, which he finds comfortable. However, it also causes inconvenience because the petitioner, on paper, is effectively ‘two different people.’ In his daily life, he frequently faces discussions and explanations due to this discrepancy. To him, the nickname he uses now signifies his true identity.

To support his claim that he uses the nickname daily, the petitioner provided a church certificate and an employee ID. Even his own children are not aware of his official first name; they only know the nickname he uses.

The court can only grant a request for a first name change if there is a birth certificate. This is because the registrar of civil affairs in The Hague places a note on the Dutch birth certificate with the date of the court’s decision. If a person doesn’t have a birth certificate, the registrar can potentially propose a way to establish the birth details.

The petitioner has an Ethiopian birth certificate that has also been legalized. The registrar of civil affairs is of the opinion that this certificate can be registered in the Dutch records. The court, in accordance with the registrar’s advice, instructs the petitioner to register the birth certificate and also grants the request for a first name change.