If you wish to change your first name, there must be an important reason that justifies the name change. There are important reasons if the private interests worthy of protection of you as the bearer of the name in the name change outweigh

• the public interest or
• a third party's private interest in retaining your name.

Important reasons are, for example

• religious motives,
• if the name triggers psychological problems (e.g. through associations),
• if there is a risk of confusion,
• if the name sounds offensive or ridiculous and is awkward to pronounce or complicated to spell, or
• after a sex change.

Furthermore, your name must be subject to German law. This includes not only German nationals, but also persons entitled to asylum, foreign refugees and stateless persons.

A name change cannot be considered if you do not like your name, for example if it is of foreign language origin. A name change is also not justified if you want to make identification by creditors more difficult.

In the case of children over the age of 1 and under the age of 16, you can only change the first name for serious reasons in the best interests of the child.

• Registration certificate and valid official photo ID (identity card, passport)
• Extract from the register of births (available from the registry office of the place of birth)
• for stateless persons: travel document or entry from the foreigners authority in the passport or passport replacement
• for homeless foreigners or persons entitled to asylum: entry from the foreigners authority in the passport or passport substitute
• for foreign refugees: Entry of the foreigners authority in the passport or passport replacement

For further documents, please contact the name change authority responsible for you in advance.

According to time spent, but no less than 40 and no more than 580 euros.

If the application for a name change is rejected, the fee can be reduced to a quarter of the full amount.

Note: If the change is successful, subsequent costs will be incurred as you will have to reapply for documents such as an identity card or passport.