Judgment of the District Court of The Hague dated April 20, 2020

Requester has a son who is currently attending secondary school. According to a statement from the requester, she had a difficult childbirth when her son was born. Consequently, she was unable to personally register her son’s birth at the town hall. Instead, her mother did the registration at the time. However, the registration was not done correctly, as her son should have been registered as Salleh*.

For almost 13 years, her son has not had a father figure in his life. The requester had always intended to officially change her son’s names to Salleh and give him the names she originally intended at birth. However, due to her financial situation, she was unable to do so earlier. Currently, her son experiences strong discomfort in his daily life due to his current given names. The requester wishes for her son to have a happy upbringing by formalizing his longstanding common name, as was her intention at the time of his birth registration. She believes she has a strong interest in changing her son’s names to Salleh.

To support their request, the requesters refer to a ruling by the Utrecht District Court dated March 8, 2006, in which the court stated:

“The court is aware that it is not uncommon for names to be incorrectly or incompletely registered at the civil registry during childbirth registration. As the requesters want to correct this mistake while the minor is only three years old, and as the minor’s interest is served by consistency of names within the family, the court believes that there is a sufficiently weighty reason for the requested name change.”

Requester considers this statement relevant to the current procedure, as her son has a strong interest in changing his name to Salleh. Although he is considerably older than three years, given his young age, a name change will contribute to a balanced identity development. He will soon enter adolescence, a crucial phase in a child’s life. To support her claim that her son is known as Deonel in his daily life, requester provides a statement from her son’s current school.

The court finds it sufficiently plausible that the child has an interest in changing his first name. The request is granted.

• The actual first name is fictitious.