HOW TO CHANGE THE NAME? IS THERE AN OBLIGATION TO SUE FOR A NAME CHANGE?
27 of the Turkish Civil Code No. 4721.according to the article, the name change can only be achieved through litigation. However, with the Law No. 7036 on Population Services published in the Official Gazette No. 30229 dated 03.11.2017 and Law No. 30229 on Amendments to Some Laws, a new opportunity has been introduced for name and surname name changes.
As a result of this regulation, as a result of the Last Name Law No. 2525, people can apply to the district population directorates located at their place of residence within two years from the date of entry into force of the law 3.they can change surname names that are contrary to the article, as well as names that have spelling or spelling errors. The change is made on a one-time basis.
With this law, it is possible to correct only names and surnames that are contrary to the law. As a result, it should be noted that people who want to change their name in the presence of a justified reason still have to file a lawsuit to change their name.
As it is, an application to the population directorate is not enough for name change operations. the amendment made in 2017 only allows people whose name was incorrectly passed on to the population to correct their names. In this context, the name may be changed by filing a lawsuit in the presence of a justifiable reason.
THE COURT AUTHORIZED AND CHARGED IN THE NAME CHANGE CASE
The case for changing the name is filed in the Civil Court of First Instance at the place of residence of the plaintiff, that is, the person who wants to change his name.
THE JUSTIFIED REASONS FOR CHANGING THE NAME ARE:
Examples of justifiable reasons for the name change include;
-The fact that the name has a ridiculous, mocking, ugly, bad or immoral meaning,
-The name is inconvenient or difficult to pronounce
-The use of the same name by more than one person leads to confusion due to
-In case of change of religion and citizenship,
-In case of gender change,
-The person is known/called by another name around family or friends,
-Your name interferes with a person’s social life or business activities,
-Someone from the family of the named person has committed a serious crime or has a bad name,
-There is a name that is forbidden to be used,
his reasons can be cited as an example of justified reasons. But the justified reasons are not limited to such examples. Each situation should be evaluated in itself.
The name change also does not affect the legal connections with the person’s family. In other words, the family connection with the person’s family is not severed and the person can still be the heir.
HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK AFTER THE NAME CHANGE CASE?
Name change cases are usually the ones that come to a decision in a short time. After the decision is issued, the relevant court decision shall notify the parties of the decision. The parties may apply for an appeal within a 15-day period after receiving the notification of the decision. if there is no objection within the 15-day period, the decision will be finalized. The final decision is sent to the Press Announcement Institution for announcement. It takes an average of 10-15 days for the announcement to be made and the announcement newspaper to be sent to the court. After this stage, the court sends its decision to the relevant population directorate and the person can have his/her new identity card removed from the population directorate.
A person can follow up a name change case by himself or with the help of a lawyer. However, since such cases are cases that require legal knowledge and experience, legal processes such as preparing a lawsuit petition, filing a lawsuit, finalizing a decision may cause some difficulties for a person, so they can work with a lawyer to avoid loss of rights.
