Ruling of the Overijssel District Court dated April 2, 2021

Petitioner and the father have a daughter. At the birth of their daughter, they chose two first names, but due to a mistake made by the father, he forgot to include the second first name. Petitioner was deeply saddened by this at the time, but despite discussions on the matter, they couldn’t add the second first name. They did not choose to follow a legal procedure for this.

Petitioner and the father are of Islamic origin and attach great importance to several rituals. One of them is that it’s essential during a ritual for the imam to whisper the name of the newborn into their ear and repeat it three times. During this ritual, the imam at the time whispered both names of their daughter, even though they are not officially her first names. For this reason, petitioner finds it (very) important that her daughter receives the second first name.

There has been no contact between the father and the minor child since around 2013. Petitioner now wishes to arrange several matters for her children, including the desired first name change. Given the ritual significance within the Islamic faith regarding the first name, petitioner considers it (very) important that her daughter receives the second first name, exactly as intended by the parties at her birth. The minor child regards it as “her” first name. Petitioner believes she has a sufficiently weighty interest in the request, and furthermore, her daughter also very much wants the second first name.

The father opposed the request, but since the daughter strongly desired the desired first name, and the father did not have any substantive arguments against the request, the court granted the request. The request was treated in court due to the parties’ positions.