Babies born in Italy should soon have two surnames instead of one – their father’s and their mother’s – if the country’s parliament agrees to a ruling made Wednesday by the Italian Constitutional Court.
According to an English translation of the ruling, the court ruled on the statute that says only the surname of the father goes to a child's birth certificate instead of both parents. Members of the court agreed that this norm should be considered constitutionally illegitimate.
“In the wake of the principle of equality and in the interest of the child, both parents must be able to share the choice on his surname, which he constitutes fundamental element of personal identity,” said the court. “Therefore, the rule becomes that the child takes the surname of both parents in the order agreed by them.”
Children will only have one surname attributed to them if parents jointly agree on the name. This rule would apply to children born to married and unmarried parents, as well as adopted children.
With the new rule, it would be broadly possible for children to solely carry their mothers’ last names in Italy for the first time, according to a report in The Washington Post. In Italy, it is standard for women to keep their last names, so mothers and children often have different surnames.
Parents from Basilicata Region who desired to give their newborn its mother’s surname to align with two older children who were legally acknowledged by their father after their birth promoted the new ruling, said the Post. They did not want to add the father’s surname to their older children’s names, “because their names and personal identities were already well established,” said a representative for Domenico Pittella, the family’s lawyer.
However, their request was denied because the law only allowed for the father’s surname or both surnames to be assigned, the representative explained.
Pittella said in a statement to The Washington Post that the ruling was a “landmark judgment” in Italy that “acknowledged that it is in the best interest of the newborn child that the choices of his parents” dictate his name, rather than being “imposed by an outdated model of the patriarchal family.”
Cecilia D’Elia, Speaker of the Conference of Democratic Women in Italy, said in a tweet that the ruling “cancels the last patriarchal sign of family law,” and that it is now up to parliament to make it official.
“Let’s move forward quickly and together on this road, which I have urged several times to go,” said Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities and Family Elena Bonetti. “I guarantee to the parliamentary process all the support of the Government to take another fundamental step in achieving equal rights between the and women and men of our country.”
When approved by parliament, the new rule would make Italian naming practices similar to naming practices in Mexico, where children’s surnames often include their father’s surname followed by their mother’s surname.
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