France to make it easier for citizens to take mother’s family name

PARIS (Reuters) – France will make it easier for citizens to take their mother’s name once they are adults, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said on Sunday.

He said the government would support a bill proposed by ruling LREM party lawmaker Patrick Vignal to allow children, when they turn 18, to easily change their family name through a simple procedure at the local town hall.

French citizens will be free to keep their father’s family name, take their mother’s family name or take both in whichever order they wish.

It is already possible for French citizens to change their family name, but it is a long and difficult procedure that requires them to prove to the justice ministry a legitimate reason for doing so.

“Nobody should have to reveal their intimate reasons for changing their name to the state,” Dupond-Moretti said on his Twitter account.

The law will be voted on in coming weeks.

In an interview with Elle magazine, Dupond-Moretti said the new legislation will make it easier to change the family name of citizens raised by single mothers or by two fathers or two mothers.

“It will be a law that will favour equality between parents and freedom for all French people,” Dupond-Moretti told Elle.

The legislation would also be a solution for people wishing to change their family name after traumatic situations such as incest, or violence by a father against the mother of his children, he said.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Susan Fenton)