Change of name in a civil partnership
You can choose a joint surname after the civil partnership has been established or discard it again after the civil partnership has been dissolved.
Once the civil partnership has been established, you can choose one of your two surnames as your married name or family name. You can also have a double name.
If the civil partnership no longer exists, you can take your former name again.
Prerequisites
The name declaration must be officially notarised and becomes effective upon receipt by the responsible registry office. The responsible office is:
- The registry office where your civil partnership was established.
- If your civil partnership was established with a notary before 2009, the registry office in whose district the notary's office is located.
- The registry office at which your civil partnership established abroad was subsequently notarised upon application.
- If 1 - 3 do not apply, the registry office in whose district you live.
- If you live abroad, the registry office in whose district you last lived.
- If none of these apply, the registry office I in Berlin.
Required documents
- Identity cards of the civil partners
- Civil partnership certificate
- Foreign-language documents are issued in multilingual form or together with a translation (publicly appointed and sworn translators)
- In individual cases, further documents may be required, in particular your birth certificates or proof of previous marriages or civil partnerships
Please use our
to obtain advice on the desired name.
Questions & Answers
If you kept your surnames when you formed your civil partnership, you can subsequently choose a joint surname without being bound by a time limit. This declaration cannot be revoked during the existence of the civil partnership.
You can choose one of the partners' birth names or one of their current surnames as the civil partnership name. Example: Hase née Wolf is partnered with Hirsch née Hund. All four names can be chosen.
Under German law, a joint surname can only be chosen by both partners together.
The civil partnership name cannot be dropped during the civil partnership. If the civil partnership no longer exists, the birth name or the name that was used before the civil partnership can be adopted again by declaration to the registry office.
First, you determine a civil partnership name. This is the joint family name of both partners.
If your surname has not become a civil partnership name, you can declare to the registry office that you wish to add your birth name or the name you were using at the time of the declaration. As a rule, this must not result in a "triple name". The prefixed or added name and the civil partnership name are joined together with a hyphen. You still have this option even if the civil partnership has already been dissolved, as long as you have the joint surname.
Under German law, a combined surname for both partners is not permitted.
You can also discard it.
According to German law, the civil partner of a mother is not automatically the mother of the child. She must adopt the child. With the adoption, the child receives the civil partnership name of both mothers.
The same applies to the adoption of a child by the father's partner.
The name declaration must be officially notarised. You can contact a registry office or a notary for this. If you live abroad, please contact your local consular mission.
Legal basis
§ 3 LPartG, § 42 PStG