BAKU — September 3, 2025.
Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court has issued guidance unifying how courts handle petitions to change a person’s first name, surname, and patronymic—while upholding a lower-court refusal in a case brought by a man seeking a more “euphonic” name and to assume his grandmother’s and mother’s names.
In a ruling by the Administrative Chamber, the court characterized name, surname, and patronymic as core to self-identification and private life, yet emphasized the right to alter them is not absolute. Limits are permissible when grounded in law, serve public interests, protect the rights of others, and do not hollow out constitutional guarantees.
The court outlined when restrictions may apply: names that harm a child’s interests, don’t correspond to gender, or are mocking/comical are inadmissible. Public interests include accurate population records, reliable identification, preserving family linkage through names, safeguarding the state language, and maintaining national naming traditions.
Individual interests—self-definition, aligning a name with one’s inner sense of identity, and expressing symbolic family ties—must be weighed, the chamber said. But applicants must present real, serious, and substantiated reasons. Personal taste, emotional attachment, or social-cultural preference alone won’t suffice.
Applying those principles, the justices found the administrative refusal affected the petitioner’s private life but remained proportionate to public interests. The court left the appellate decision in place and denied the cassation appeal.
The guidance is expected to standardize lower-court practice and set clearer thresholds for civil registry authorities reviewing future petitions.
