Constitutional Court Rules Italian Children Should Be Given Surnames of Both Parents

Italian Children Italian Kids Surnames of Children Children Surnames Surnames of Italian Children

By Joel Brussels , Parent Herald Apr 28, 09:43 am

Photo: (Photo : FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)

Italy's constitutional court ruled that children born in the country should be given the surnames of both parents, overturning the long-standing tradition by which all newborn babies are automatically named after their fathers.

The country's constitutional court said on Wednesday, April 27, that rules requiring Italian children to be given only their father's surname are unlawful. The ruling by Italy's top court refers to kids born to both married and unmarried parents and children who are adopted, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The court said in its statement that the practice was "discriminatory and harmful to the identity" of the kid, adding that both parents should be able to choose the surname of their child.

Kids should be given parents' surnames in the order they decide

The Italian court added in the statement that children should be given both parents' surnames in the order they decide unless they both agree that their kid should take just one of them. If the parents cannot decide on the order of their child's surname, the decision will be made by a judge.

Italian parliament needs to approve the new legislation, which is required to implement the court's decision. Parliament is expected to approve the new legislation in the coming weeks.

Elena Bonetti, Italy's family minister, posted a message on the social media platform Facebook, saying that the Italian government would fully support parliament in this process. She wrote that they need to give substance [to the court's decision], and it is a high priority and urgent task of politics for them to do so. Bonetti added that parents should take equal responsibility for their child's upbringing.

Lawyers hail court's historic ruling

According to a report by Wanted in Rome, the historic court ruling results from a case taken by a family with three kids from Potenza in the southern Basilicata region of Italy. In that case, the first two children in the family were registered with the mother's surname.

However, the third child was automatically given the father's surname as he was born after his parents got married. The parents objected to that rule, saying that they wanted their son to have the same surname as his two sisters, which is their mother's surname.

Domenico Pittella and Giampaolo Birenza, the lawyers who brought the case to Italy's constitutional court, hailed the ruling, saying that today's "historic result" represents a "small revolution."

Meanwhile, Pope Francis and the political leaders in Italy have expressed concerns about the impact of the country's declining birth rate. The cost of raising children is seen as one of the factors, according to the Guardian. There were 404,104 babies born in the country in 2020, down by almost 16,000 from 2019, the lowest birth rate recorded in Italy since 1861.