Judgment of the Middle Netherlands District Court dated February 25, 2021
The petitioners have a son who is a few years old. At the time of his birth registration, they consciously chose an Indonesian name because they themselves are of Indonesian descent.
The meaning of the name is very important to the petitioners; it signifies “loving.” Shortly after their son’s birth, the petitioners realized that their son’s name was often mispronounced by others. This mispronunciation is due in part to the way certain letters are pronounced in the Indonesian alphabet. In the Netherlands, the name is pronounced based on the Dutch alphabet, which leads to frequent mispronunciations. The petitioners find this situation distressing for their son.
Their son will start school in a few years, and the petitioners would like him to have a name that is easy to manage and cannot be mispronounced by others. For this reason, they wish to add the non-Indonesian first name “Mike.” The petitioners consider this a beautiful name. They hope that their son will be spared all the inconvenience related to the mispronunciation of his first official name in the future. They believe that this change will prevent future issues. The petitioners also value having a different name for their son because they are internationally oriented. There is a high likelihood that they will move abroad in the near future. In view of this, they want a name that is likely to be pronounced correctly in English.
In the Netherlands, it is quite common for parents to make errors in birth registration. It also frequently happens that parents regret the chosen name in the period following birth registration, for example, due to mispronunciation, as in this case. Such situations occur with both Dutch and foreign names, and the court usually grants requests for name changes. In this case as well, the court finds that the petitioners have adequately explained their reasons and grants the application.
- The real name has been fictionalized.
