COPE How and when can we change our last name?

The Government wants the reform of the Civil Registry Law to offer children of legal age and other descendants of victims of gender violence the possibility of eliminating any trace of the paternal surname. This is stated in an amendment by the Socialist Group to the Bill on urgent measures for the development of the State Pact Against Gender Violence, to which ABC has had access, which is currently being processed in the Congress of Deputies. This amendment introduces a third final provision with several changes. This legislative initiative is a consequence of Royal Decree Law 9/2018, approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez on August 3. A unilateral approval that unleashed criticism from the opposition, since it meant breaking the consensus reached to approve the pact. This discomfort had consequences and the Government was forced to agree to process this Royal Decree as a bill, given the evidence that it was not going to be validated by Congress.

Follow-up on the Agreement

With this amendment, which the Socialists hope will go ahead, a further step is taken in the process for changing surnames. Currently, as the socialist spokesperson in the Pact Monitoring Commission, Carmen Cuello, assured ABC, adults can change the order of their surnames, “but the paternal and maternal line must always be maintained. You can change the order, but the last name will never completely disappear.

The text they propose is the following: "Likewise, without prejudice to the provisions of article 55, the children and other descendants of the victims of gender violence, who prove their status as such by means of a final conviction or other irrefutably, whether or not they lived in the home in which said situation occurred, they may request the change of their surnames without being subject to the requirement that the new surname comes from the paternal line. The change will be agreed by the person in charge of the Civil Registry, previous file instructed in a regulatory manner.

How can I change my last name?

According to the data we have found on the Civil Registry website, the requirements to be followed are the following: In order for said change to be authorized, the following must be proven:

- That the citizen who wishes to make the change uses and is known by the surname that he is requesting. Said use and knowledge must be real and not have been created intentionally in order to achieve the change.

- That the new surnames that are desired legitimately belong to the interested party.

- That the desired surnames belong to the two lines of parents, one from the paternal side and the other from the maternal side.

- The above requirements are general, but there are certain cases declared in the Civil Registry regulations in which said requirements are not enforceable:

- It is not necessary that the first of the requirements be met in the case of a surname that is contrary to decorum or that could cause serious inconveniences or when there is a clear risk that a Spanish surname could disappear at the national level ( it is not relevant that the last name is lost within a family).

- It is not necessary to meet these requirements if there are exceptional circumstances, this being the case if there is a special procedure.

- Nor would it be necessary to prove the general requirements that the applicant for the change has obtained some type of precautionary measure of judicial protection, has been a victim of gender violence, or emergency situations that require it.

- In the case of citizens of the European Union, the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union is applied (CJEU Judgment of October 2, 2003 – García Abello and CJEU Judgment of October 14, 2008 – Grunkin Paul).

If what we want is to change the order of the last names:

The system of imposing surnames dictates that a person must take the first surname of the father as the first surname and the first of the mother as the second.

This rule can be modified if it is by mutual agreement between the parents, and (before the registration of the birth) they decide to invert the order of the surname of the latter, so that it is registered with the first of the mother, as first, and with the first of the father, as the second. The order agreed for the eldest of the children must also be fulfilled in the registrations of the following children that are from the same parents. Regardless, once the child reaches the age of majority, he can also request the order of his last names.