Parents are to be given more freedom to choose their child’s surname, caretaker justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin told MPs on Tuesday.

Social changes make it sensible to allow parents to choose either the mother or father’s name for the child within the first year of its life, Hirsch Ballin said.
Under current rules, babies born to a couple who are married take the father’s name. If the parents are not married, the baby takes his or her mother’s name. To deviate from this, both parents have to report to the town hall in person within three days of the birth.
In addition, Hirsch Ballin wants to make it easier for people who experience problems with their name to change it, and to keep names from the nobility alive.