Legal name is often the
nameA name is a label for a noun, normally used to distinguish one from another. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person...
which an individual is called at birth or which appears on their
birth certificateA birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. Outside the United States, the term "birth certificate" refers to a certification of the original birth record. In the United States, the term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document or to a...
(see
birth name) or marriage certificate (in places that have a
statuteA statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a country, state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law and the regulations issued by...
allowing a name change to be recorded at marriage).
A person's legal name typically comprises their
given nameA given name is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
and a
family nameA family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
. The order varies according to culture and country. There are also country-by-country differences on changes of legal names by
marriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
, see
married name.
In 1991, a Swedish couple refused to give their newborn a legal name, in protest of existing naming laws.
Legal name is often the
nameA name is a label for a noun, normally used to distinguish one from another. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person...
which an individual is called at birth or which appears on their
birth certificateA birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. Outside the United States, the term "birth certificate" refers to a certification of the original birth record. In the United States, the term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document or to a...
(see
birth name) or marriage certificate (in places that have a
statuteA statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a country, state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law and the regulations issued by...
allowing a name change to be recorded at marriage).
A person's legal name typically comprises their
given nameA given name is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
and a
family nameA family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
. The order varies according to culture and country. There are also country-by-country differences on changes of legal names by
marriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
, see
married name.
In 1991, a Swedish couple refused to give their newborn a legal name, in protest of existing naming laws. In 1996, when fined after leaving their child legally nameless for five years, they submitted the child's name as
Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 was a name intended for a Swedish child who was born in 1991.Parents Elisabeth Hallin and Lasse Diding had planned to never legally name their child as a protest against the naming law of Sweden , which reads:First names shall not be approved if they can...
.
United States
Most states still allow the
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
of changing one's name through non-fraudulent use. This is actually the most common method, since most women who marry do not petition a court under the statutorily prescribed method, but simply use a new name (typically the husband's, a custom which started under the theory of
covertureCoverture was a legal doctrine whereby, upon marriage, a woman's legal rights were subsumed by those of her husband. Coverture was enshrined in the common law of England and the United States throughout most of the 19th century...
where a woman lost her identity and most rights when she married). Most state courts have held that a legally assumed name (i.e., for a non-fraudulent purpose) is a legal name and usable as their true name, though assumed names are often not considered the person's technically true name.
England
In strict English law, if there is such a thing as a "
legal" surname, it is easily changed. In the words of
A dictionary of American and English law, "Any one may take on himself whatever surname or as many surnames as he pleases, without statutory licence". However, this does not apply to names given in
baptismIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
. "A man may have divers names at divers times, but not divers christian names".