Changing Last name after naturalization

[Nambiar 0]

Hello, I would like to change my last name as it is too long and difficult to pronounce. I had approached the Standesamt for the same and was told that it was not possible to change the last name altogether but only simplify it by taking out alphabets. In my case this would be of little help. Does it make sense to go to court? My friend who was in a similar situation managed to get the last name changed without any hassles in Munich. I am wondering why is the same law intrepreted in different ways !!!

[slammer 695]

Why bother? My last name has only four letters and Germans get it wrong each and every time, by now I am at 20 different variants.
I know a lot of people whose last name reads like a cat has walked over the keyboard and who figure that it is not their problem when officials struggle. Also it´s your name so why take on all the hassle just to make it easier for somebody who doesn´t care anyway?

[yourkeau 7,272]

You know Tchibo coffee? It is an abbreviation from Tchiling-Bohne named after the founder Carl Tchiling who also had a very difficult Armenian last name to pronounce: Tchilinghiryan. So he shortened it, and now no one even thinks that Tchibo has "migration background".

 

It's 2021, not 1949 now, so I agree with @slammer that naturalization is a two way street, the Germans have to deal with it somehow, not you.

[arunadasi 7,072]

I suppose it depends on which Beamter you get. My son was able to change his immediately. But it's a longish story so I won't go into it,  about Umlauts and transcribing them into English.

 

ETA: in my case it's the English fools at the bank etc who won't bother to understand and accept the correct transcription of an Umlaut and telling me I've spelled my own name wrong.

 

 

[LukeSkywalker 6,768]

I reckon the OP should try again and not inform the civil servant that he was there already before: new round, new luck.

 

In the Netherlands some surnames sound like a swear word, so this is a legit reason to change it.