Pursuant to Article 89 et seq. of Italian Presidential Decree n° 396 of 3 November 2000, as modified by Italian Presidential Decree n° 54 of 13 March 2012, anyone wishing to change his name or add another name to his own, or to change his surname or add another surname to his own, must apply to the Prefect of the province in which he/she resides or in whose district the civil registrar’s office where the birth certificate to which the request refers is located. An Italian citizen residing abroad may alternatively submit a written request to his consulate of reference, for subsequent forwarding to the competent Prefecture.
GENERAL WARNINGS
In the Italian legal system, the change of name or surname has an exceptional character, therefore requests may only and exclusively be admitted in the presence of objectively relevant situations, supported by adequate and meaningful documentation and solid and significant motivations.
In particular, Italian Presidential Decree 396/2000 allows:
- the change of name or surname because it is ridiculous or shameful or because it reveals a natural origin (art. 89);
- the change of name or addition of another name to one’s own (Art. 89);
- the change of surname or addition of another surname to one’s own (art. 84).
In no case may the attribution of surnames of historical importance or in any case such as to mislead as to the applicant’s belonging to illustrious or particularly well-known families in the place where the applicant’s birth certificate is registered or in the place of his residence be requested.
The Consulate has no decision-making power over name and/or surname changes, acting merely as an intermediary between the citizen and the competent Italian Prefecture.
The Consulate has no power to intervene in the timing of the procedure, which is determined by a series of steps regulated by the Civil Code and by the Prefecture’s response time, as illustrated below.
The outcome of the application is discretionary and the Prefect may reject it if he considers the reasons given to be insufficient or unfounded.
Italian law does not provide for a married woman to change her surname.
The entire procedure for changing one’s name and/or surname, as it is carried out at the competent Prefecture in Italy, is conducted exclusively in Italian. Those who are not familiar with our language should consider using the services of a professional translator, at their own expense.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Applications to change one’s name or surname follow the following steps:
- application by the person concerned on the appropriate form (to be found on the website of the competent Prefecture);
- payment of the consular fee on the application (NAA stamp duty – Decrees and petitions);
- forwarding of the application to the competent Prefecture, the Prefecture has up to 30 days to give a reply, which may be:
- acceptance of the application;
- rejection of the application;
- conditional acceptance: the Prefect may request additional documentation, such as a criminal record certificate. Once the requested additions have been provided, the Prefect either accepts the application or rejects it.
- if acceptance is confirmed, the Prefect will issue the Provisional Decree on the change of name or surname;
- publication for 30 days of a notice containing the summary of the application and payment of the relevant consular fee;
- notification to the competent Prefecture of the publication;
- receipt by the Prefecture of the Final Decree on the change of name or surname;
- delivery of the Final Decree to the interested party and payment of the relevant consular fee;
- the interested party requests the local authority of birth to transcribe and record the Final Decree on the change of name or surname.