Kyrgyzstan legalizes matronymic names

 Read more: https://asiaplustj.info/en/news/centralasia/20230703/kyrgyzstan-legalizes-matronymic-names

The Judicial Board of the Constitutional Court of the Kyrgyz Republic has recognized the need to develop the institution of mating / matronym in Kyrgyzstan.

The Kyrgyz government is currently developing amendments to the legislation on the institution of mating / matronym, giving the right to children over the age of 16 to indicate in documents instead of patronymic names, that is, the name of the mother.

Kyrgyz female activist Altyn Kapalova wrote on her Facebook page on July 2 that Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Court had ordered the Government to legalize matronymic names following her long-running battle to allow children to choose to use their mother's name instead of their father's as part of their full legal names in documents.

The legislation would allow children to choose which of their parents' names to use when they reach 16, Ms. Kapalova wrote on her Facebook page. 

“That is any adult can have the mother's name as a middle name.  I would like thank the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and congratulate my 16-year-old son Daniyar Altynovich Kapalov, who will soon go to get a passport and be able to take my name as a middle name.  I was especially pleased with the Constitutional Court’s wording “matronym / mating institution,” Ms. Kapalova wrote on her Facebook page.  

Kyrgyz media reports say Ms. Kapalova, a single mother of several children, has fought for the change for years.