Judgment of the Amsterdam District Court dated December 18, 2020

The petitioner has an official first name but has been using the self-chosen nickname Lisa for the past 22 years. The reason for this is that she is from the Czech Republic, and her official name is (very) difficult to pronounce in the country. Additionally, her maiden name is Ševal, and because of the difficulty of both names, they hinder the petitioner in social interactions. When introducing herself with her real name, she feels embarrassed, so she almost always uses her nickname. According to her, the official names do not suit her and are not fitting in Dutch society. She finds the nickname suitable for her home country as well, but even there, she sometimes has to repeat her official names twice.

After a period of 22 years, the petitioner realizes that she is not content with her official names and wishes to formalize her chosen nickname.

In support of her request, the petitioner refers to a ruling of the Maastricht District Court dated September 11, 2012, ECLI:NL:RBMAA:2012:BY2910, where the court stated:

“That many others may have positive associations with the name [name], or are completely indifferent to it, apparently cannot outweigh [name]’s feelings. This means that the court, in the context of the assessment it must apply in this case, simply has to assume that [petitioner, red.] experiences a lot of inconvenience in daily life due to the use of his first name. The fact that this inconvenience is strongly subjectively colored cannot detract from it. The court considers [name]’s personal interests, even if someone else would experience little or no inconvenience from that first name, sufficiently weighty for the requested change of his first name. The general interest, including the interest of legal traffic, where a high degree of name consistency is highly valued, must therefore give way to [name]’s personal interest.”

Given the petitioner’s explanation, the court grants the request (in writing), and no oral hearing took place.

*Real first names are fictional.