20 March 2024
Meier Müller, Müller, Meier or Müller-Meier? A little more than ten years after the last revision of the law, the Federal Council is now in favour of reintroducing dual surnames - a sign of solidarity with society's need for both surnames to be officially represented after marriage. The planned revision goes even further: children of unmarried parents will now also be able to bear a dual surname.
Since the revision of the law in 2013, spouses must choose whether each of them will keep their own surname after the marriage or whether one of the two surnames will be chosen as their joint surname. If the spouses each keep their own surname, they must decide on the surname of any children they may have, choosing only one of their surnames.
Children born to unmarried parents must be given one of the surnames of the parents with custody. If only one parent has custody, the child is given that parent's surname. If the parents marry after the birth of their children, the surname can be (re)determined for the whole family.
In addition to the above options, all of which are considered "official" surnames, the so-called "alliance name" has become established (e.g. Meier-Müller). This is the chosen common surname (Meier) to which the surname of the other spouse (Müller) can be added with a hyphen, with the spouse's surname coming second. This variant is not an official surname and cannot be entered in the civil register.
In practice, many spouses and unmarried parents wish to express their family ties by having the same surname. However, under current legislation, this is only possible if one of the spouses gives up their own surname. Even in the case of unmarried parents, only one of the parents can pass on their surname to their children.
The planned revision of the law is intended to meet this need and to simplify the law in general. The Legal Affairs Committee of the National Council is proposing the reintroduction of the previously permitted dual surnames. In contrast to the "Allianzname", the dual surname used to be a legal, official surname consisting of both spouses' surnames without a hyphen (Meier Müller). It is planned to reintroduce the dual surname, with or without a hyphen. It will also be possible for parents to choose a dual surname for their children. This shall apply both to children of unmarried parents and to children whose parents each retained their own surname at the time of marriage. As the definition of the term already indicates, dual surnames are limited to two names. If one of the spouses or one of the parents already has a dual surname, they must - in accordance with the proposal of the Legal Commission -choose one of these surnames, otherwise a combination would result in an unacceptable sequence of three surnames. However, there is an exception to this rule: historically grown dual surnames (e.g. Mayr von Baldegg or Pfyffer von Altishofen), can be adopted as a whole (e.g. Müller Mayr von Baldegg).
The Federal Council welcomes the proposed amendment to the law but goes even further and calls for the examination of other possible name formations and variations. For example, the order of the dual surname should be left to the choice of each spouse (Meier Müller and Müller Meier, Meier-Müller and Müller-Meier), i.e. both spouses could choose to use their own surname first and add the surname of the other spouse (with or without a hyphen) at the end.
Regardless of whether the National Council's legal affairs committee goes along with the (even) more liberal proposal of the Federal Council, the proposed revision of the law is to be welcomed and reflects current socio-political needs. However, the discussion about how liberal the future naming system should be will certainly continue: what should be done about historically grown dual surnames, or what rules should apply if parents cannot agree on a common surname for their children? The ball is now back in the National Council's court. It remains exciting.
