Judgment of the North Holland District Court of August 19, 2020

The petitioner is originally from Bosnia and experiences significant inconvenience in her daily life due to her first name. The reasons for this are numerous. Firstly, she states that the first name is considered old-fashioned or classic in Bosnia.

Furthermore, the petitioner encounters difficulties with her first name in the Netherlands because it is often mispronounced, or because it proves difficult to locate her in Dutch registers. All these factors have led to self-consciousness when using her official name, which severely hampers her daily life.

The petitioner has gone through a challenging period and has undergone psychological counseling, partly due to significant events in her personal life. She wants to get rid of her first name so that she can make a fresh start in her life.

A person can only change their first name if they have a birth certificate. In the case of a birth in the Netherlands, this would be an extract from the municipal birth certificate. For a birth abroad, the person generally needs to possess an original, legalized birth certificate. The petitioner has an original, legalized birth certificate. However, because it is not clear to the Registrar of Births how the family relationship with her father was established, she is also required to provide an extract from the marriage certificate. Even this document is initially insufficient for the Registrar of Births, but the court believes that the petitioner has submitted enough documents. It officially establishes the petitioner’s birth details and grants the request for a first name change.