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The French are changing their last names more and more. For example, to remove from your civil status the name of an abusive or incestuous father.
Caroline is finally proud of her identity cardvsar now her name is Klein. At 26, she chose to abandon the name of her father, a man she barely knew. She now wears her mother’s. “It’s a way of saying to her ‘thank you mom, my name is yours today’ and I’m very proud to be called Mrs. Klein”, specifies Caroline Klein. An approach made easier by a law passed in the summer of 2022.
In two thirds of cases, the person replaced the name of one parent with that of the other
In two years, nearly 150,000 name changes have been recorded. That’s three times more than before the appearance ofa new procedure. Half of the applicants are rather young, between 18 and 29 years old. And in two-thirds of cases, the person replaced one parent’s name with that of the other. “In October 2022 we were at 13,000 people in a single month, currently we are roughly at 6,000 per month”specifies Lionel Espinasse, head of people directories at INSEE. These are mainly women who have decided to change their name.