Judgment of the District Court Amsterdam dated September 30, 2020
Applicant came to the Netherlands as a refugee from Afghanistan and initially provided the municipality with the name Abdul-Ghani*, but his original name was Fateh. He was forced to give a different name at the time due to being a refugee and seeking asylum in the Netherlands.
Moreover, the applicant practices the Islamic faith; his current (fictitious) name is predominantly neutral, in the sense that it is not related to the Islamic faith and is also (almost) non-existent in the Netherlands. Consequently, he faces hindrance in two respects due to his current name: firstly, because the name is not linked to the Islamic faith, and secondly, the desired name, Fateh, is a common name in most Middle Eastern countries, unlike his current (fictitious) name. For these reasons, the applicant wishes to change his first names through this request.
In addressing whether the applicant has a sufficiently weighty interest in the requested name change and whether the societal interest in consistent handling of first names should yield, he refers to a ruling from the Amsterdam Court of Appeals on March 17, 2005, ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2005:AT2901, r.o. 3.4., where it was stated: “There can be significant reasons for someone to want a change of first name. The government may set conditions to protect the general interest. This may include the interest of a reliable registration of personal data in the population register. The appellant wishes to prevent his current first names from constantly evoking the association of being connected to the Catholic faith and thereby infringing on his private life, while he has distanced himself from it. The court considers this to be a sufficiently weighty reason for a change of first name. Moreover, the change will be generally known through the system of Dutch government administration, and public interest does not oppose the intended name change by the appellant.”
The applicant does not possess an Afghan birth certificate, but he has several other documents proving his birth details. He cannot obtain an original birth certificate from Afghanistan and requests the court to grant this request as well.
The court, in line with the advice from the civil registry in The Hague, rules that the request for the establishment of birth details is eligible for approval. Therefore, this request, along with the request for a change of first names, is granted.
- The real first name is fictional.
