The Keeper of the Seals gave his “enthusiastic” support for this reform which will make it possible to respond “to those people who support their name more than they wear it”.
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Abandoning the name received at birth to take that of the other parent: the National Assembly gave its green light, on the night of Wednesday 26 to Thursday 27 January, to a text allowing to change surname more easily, a times in his life. The bill of the deputy LREM Patrick Vignal “relating to the choice of the name resulting from filiation” was adopted at first reading by 49 votes to 5 with 2 abstentions.
This short text of four articles touches through the name and its transmission to a foundation of civil status and individual identity. This law “of freedom” will give “a choice without imposing it” and “will make it possible to put an end to suffering, to appease families”, pleaded Patrick Vignal. Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti lent his support “enthusiastic” to this reform which will make it possible to respond “to those people who bear their name more than they wear it”.
The flow of often lively debates was marked by the personal testimony of MP Aina Kuric (Agir group, majority). “I am the victim of an incestuous father (…) and I no longer wish to bear the name of my executioner. I wish to bear that of the woman who made me, and she is my mother”, she launched, describing the current complex steps to achieve this. “We don’t change our name for fun, because it’s fun”, she added to applause.
The left and center-right oppositions gave their support to this proposal. On the right and on the far right, some have on the contrary denounced a drift towards a “à la carte civil status, at the risk of weakening the very notion of filiation”.
The change of name is now possible in certain cases – a ridiculous or discredited sounding name, for the purposes of Frenchifying a foreign name, to prevent the extinction of a surname – but the procedure is long, costly and uncertain. . The so-called “emotional” reasons, for those wishing to give up the name of a violent, incestuous, absent parent or any other personal reason, are subject to the same procedures, often without success.