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Changing your surname more easily is what a bill examined in the National Assembly on Wednesday, January 26. France 3 journalists met a woman who no longer wants to bear her father’s name.
For ten years, Mélina has not seen her father, who abandoned her. However, it bears his name. A cumbersome surname, which she would like to get rid of, because “it evokes pain, absence and the unknown. Quite the opposite of what my maternal family brought me”, says the young woman. This student from Dunkirk (North) has started the process to change her name. An obstacle course, with paid publication in the Official Journal and a letter to the administration that has so far remained unanswered.
Like Mélina, more than 4,000 people asked to change their name in 2020. The reasons are multiple: abandonment, incest, abuse, but also a surname difficult to bear. A new law could authorize a change of name once in a lifetime, by simple declaration at the town hall. The second part of the law would make it easier for divorced women to pass on their name to their children. If the law is adopted, the new simplified approach could be implemented as early as this summer.