WHAT IS A NAME CHANGE CASE?
The name change case is regulated in Article 27 of the Turkish Civil Code. According to this article, the change of name can only be requested from the judge based on justified reasons. The right to change one’s name is the exercise of a legal right of personal existence that is strictly connected to the person. Since names are very important for people, it is possible to request the court to change the name in the presence of just cause. If the person changes his/her name, his/her personal status will not change. In addition, the name change case does not only mean changing the existing name. Therefore, in the presence of just cause, persons may request the court to add a second name to the existing name, or they may also request the deletion of their second name.
WHAT ARE THE JUST CAUSES IN A NAME CHANGE CASE?
Justified reasons in the name change case are not listed in the law and are relative. Because names represent people, justified reasons may vary according to the case and personal reasons may also be accepted as justified reasons. To give a few examples for justified reasons,
A person’s name is funny, ridiculous,
Belonging to an offender who is notorious or known in the community,
His name is associated with a bad incident,
It’s a name that is not in accordance with the general rules of morality,
Difficult to pronounce the person’s name
A reminder of one’s trauma,
Professional grounds,
Artistic justifications,
People do not feel that they belong to their name,
Recognition of a person by a name other than the name written on their identity card,
Political, immoral names that offend people,
Changing religion can be given as an example.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE IS NO JUST CAUSE IN THE NAME CHANGE CASE?
If there is no justifiable reason to change the name of the person, the request of the plaintiff who wants to change his/her name through the representative sent by the Population Directorate can be objected. Because the defendant in name change cases is the Population Directorate. For this reason, the Population Directorate sends a representative to the hearings as the counterparty.
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