Renaming

Can you change your last name to your grandmother's?

Publié le 29 mai 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Aude is named after her father. That's his birth name. For emotional reasons, she wants to change her name and adopt the name of her maternal grandmother, who recently passed away. When informed by a friend of a simplified name change procedure before the registrar, she wished to know whether her choice could be based on the birth name of her maternal grandmother.

Service-Public.fr replies:

The Law of 2 March 2022 created a simplified name change procedure open to any adult wishing to bear the name of the parent who did not pass on his or her name.

Aude can only choose from the names on her birth certificate, namely:

  • the name of his father;
  • or the name of its mother;
  • or their 2 names placed side by side in the order she wishes and within the limit of one name for each of her parents.

It cannot therefore not bear the name of an ascendant (grandfather, grandmother...) who would not be carried by his parents and therefore would not appear on his birth certificate.

Example :

Aude has a simple name, that of her father: BELIER.

Her mother is DUMONT, her grandmother DURAND.

Aude can only change to the following names: BELIER DUMONT, DUMONT BELIER or DUMONT.

To be able to take the name of her grandmother, alone the procedure for changing a name for a legitimate reason is possible. Aude has to justify a legitimate interest, for example changing a foreign-sounding name, a ridiculous or pejorative name, raising a name threatened with extinction, etc.

Additional topics

Agenda

Voir toutes les échéances