MoJ: Cases of changing ethnicity entries on the rise

The given name was changed in 112 cases, the surname in 1,114 cases, both the given name and surname in 59 cases, and the ethnicity entry in 76 cases, while four applications to change a personal name or ethnicity entry were rejected this year.

It should be noted that, during the 12 months of 2021, the given name was changed in 247 cases, the surname of 1,181 people was changed, 71 people changed both their given name and surname, and 20 people changed their ethnicity entry.

People usually change their given name or surname if it makes it difficult for them to integrate into society. They may also wish to reclaim their birth or maiden surname, or add their spouse’s surname to their own.

Solvita Saukuma-Laimere, Director of the Ministry of Justice’s Department of Registry Affairs, notes: “The statistics compiled by the Ministry of Justice’s Department of Registry Affairs show that each person has their own subjective circumstances and feelings that make it difficult to integrate into society with their existing personal name, and therefore they wish to change it. One person may dislike their personal name, find it too long or difficult to pronounce, while another may not feel a sense of belonging to their family and therefore wish to give up the personal name given to them by their parents. It has also been observed that this year an increasing number of people wish to change their existing personal name, most often their surname, because they do not want to be associated with their Slavic origin. In such cases, people most often state that they are deeply concerned about the events in Ukraine and fear that, because of their origin, their relationships with relatives, friends or neighbours could be affected, or that they could even lose their job. Therefore, people often wish to change a personal name of Slavic origin to one of Baltic origin, or to a personal name that would be easier to use abroad as well.”

The statistics compiled by the Ministry of Justice also show that this year there has been an increase in the trend of changing one’s existing ethnicity entry. It should be noted that the Law on Changing a Given Name, Surname and Ethnicity Entry stipulates that a person who has reached the age of majority may change their ethnicity entry only once to that of a direct ancestor within two generations. It has been observed that the existing ethnicity entry “Russian” is most often changed to “Latvian”, “Ukrainian” or “Jewish”, as well as “German” and “Polish”.

When this distribution is assessed in terms of gender, women traditionally change both personal names and ethnicity entries more often. During the first eight months of this year, 76% of those who chose to change their personal name were women and 24% were men, while women accounted for 63% of those who changed their ethnicity entry and men for 37%.