No Hyphens, Please: Germany Tells Parents To Keep Names Simple
Young Leonhard's Parents
Fight One of Many Rules;
No Lenins and Schnuckis
LUXEMBOURG -- Young Leonhard Matthias Grunkin-Paul has a problem: His name is illegal.
The German boy's divorced parents want Leonhard to be known by their combined last names, an increasingly common practice elsewhere. But authorities in Germany, citing a law against hyphens, have refused to allow it. So Leonhard, born in 1998, officially has no last name at all.
His passport reads: "Leonhard Matthias, son of Stefan Grunkin and Dorothee Paul." Says his mother: "I don't know how he can go through life like that."
Many Germans have long chafed under their country's rigid naming rules. But a European Union court may shortly deal the rules a blow for at least some of them. A preliminary ruling from the court has found that Leonhard, a German citizen born and named in Denmark, is entitled to his hyphen as a citizen of the EU.
In a society that values order and tradition, the rules are meant to prevent German children from being the victims of ridicule or confusion. A forename must indicate a person's gender, for example; if it doesn't, a second name should be given that clarifies the matter.
"We have had these rules for as long as I can remember," says Karin M. Eichhoff-Cyrus, director of the state-funded German Language Society, which helps enforce the rules. "Everyone knows you cannot have a name that is 'Refrigerator' or something."
And why no hyphens? Dr. Eichhoff-Cyrus, who hyphenated her own surname after marriage but is not allowed to pass it on to her children, explains that the concern is hyphenation multiplication. If a double-named boy grew up to marry and have children with a double-named woman, those children could have four names, and their children could have eight, and their children could have 16. The bureaucracy shudders.
All Germans register their names with the Standesamt, or local registry. Standards vary from place to place, and applicants who are turned down can appeal to the courts. Authorities are usually more flexible about first names than last. Among the first names approved over the years, according to the Language Society: Pumuckl, taken from a cartoon character, and Pepsi-Carola, taken from a soft drink. Rejected: Lenin, McDonald, Schnucki and Bierstübl, which translates roughly as "little beer pub."
A Dusseldorf court in 1998 rejected the name Chenekwahow Migiskau Nikapi-Hun-Nizeo Alessandro Majim Chayara Inti Ernesto Prithibi Kioma Pathar Henriko, on the grounds that the mother's wish to honor multiculturalism shouldn't result in an awkwardly long name for the child. A Frankfurt court upheld the name Jesus the same year, in part because it's widely known that Christ was male, leaving little room for gender confusion.
Germany isn't alone in Europe in regulating names. Slovakia, for example, forbids first names that are eccentric, derogatory or ludicrous (parents can't name a child "Cigarette," for instance). It also generally bans hyphenated last names for children -- though the Ministry of Interior says it makes an exception for the children of hyphenated foreigners living in Slovakia. Natives are allowed double surnames without hyphens.
But in Belgium, authorities in 1997 told children of a Spanish-Belgian marriage they could not switch to a Spanish-style double surname: "There are insufficient grounds to propose to His Majesty the King that he grant you the favor of changing your surname." They appealed to an EU court and won. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, imposes almost no rules.
In Germany, the Language Society helps navigate the minefield, responding to several thousand requests each year from residents seeking guidance on names before they go to the Standesamt. Increasingly these requests come from people of Asian, African or Middle Eastern origin who must prove they're not trying to slip, say, the Chinese equivalent of Moon Unit Zappa past unsuspecting German authorities.
Drawing on branches in 20 countries, the society researches non-German names for conformance to the German rules. The name must be in use in its country of origin, for example. One indicator: people by that name appear in books or newspapers. The society also confirms the name's gender association. Then it compiles its findings in an opinion that an applicant can present to the registrar. "Our opinions are almost never rejected," Dr. Eichhoff-Cyrus says.
Recently the society advised a couple that authorities probably wouldn't allow them to name their daughter Chanel. "It sounds very pretty, but still, it's a brand name," Dr. Eichhoff-Cyrus says. There are times that German authorities permit people to change their given name. A Munich court allowed a man to ditch "Adolf" because it made people think of Hitler. Courts also recognize the right of transsexuals to change their honorific -- "Frau" to "Herr," or vice versa.
Leonhard's case is helped by his living with his mother in Denmark, an EU country more tolerant of hyphens. That puts it in the purview of the EU court, and raises the question of whether one EU member nation can legally uphold restrictions on citizens, given that they're free to move to other EU nations where the restrictions don't apply.
And so in April, Leonhard's father took an overnight train from Hamburg to the tiny duchy of Luxembourg, seat of the EU court to which his local municipal court in Germany had referred the hyphen case. Before a panel of crimson-robed judges, Mr. Grunkin told his domestic story: His wife, Dr. Paul, kept her maiden name after their marriage. Leonhard was born in Denmark. The couple was divorced in 2003, and Leonhard and his mother stayed in Denmark, where she practices medicine and he lives legally with his hyphenated name.
All three remain German citizens, Mr. Grunkin explained. But now, when his son travels a dozen miles over the border into Germany to stay with him, the boy suddenly has no official last name. German authorities suggested the boy simply remove the offending hyphen. But Mr. Grunkin argued that would downgrade his own legacy to just another of his son's middle names. "I am the child's father!" he said. "But they say the child has to accept a different name in Germany, the name of the mother?"
He pleaded with the court: "My ex-wife and I made a deliberate choice to give the child a hyphenated name. It's simply untenable that the German authorities want to dig their heels in on this point."
A lawyer for the German government, Alfred Dittrich, countered: "The problem is the parents decided to choose a name that they knew, or must have known, was illegal in Germany."
Mr. Grunkin sighed and rolled his eyes.
Two months after the hearing, Mr. Grunkin received some vindication. The court's advisory opinion, usually a good indicator of how the judges will eventually rule, called Germany's rejection of the hyphen "totally incompatible" with Leonhard's rights as an EU citizen. A final decision is expected by the end of the year.
名字太长惹麻烦
小莱昂哈德?马蒂亚斯?格林金－保罗 (Leonhard Matthias Grunkin-Paul)有点麻烦：他的名字不合法。
这个德国男孩的父母已经离异，但希望孩子仍然保留用他们各自的姓组成的复姓。这种情况在别的国家越来越常见。然而，德国当局不予批准，根据是一条禁止姓氏使用连字号的法律。于是，1998年出生的莱昂哈德根本没有正式的姓。
他的护照是这样写的：莱昂哈德?马蒂亚斯，斯蒂芬?格林金和多罗西?保罗的儿子。“我不知道儿子这样怎么过一辈子，”他的母亲说。
不少德国人很长时间以来一直对该国严格的取名规定不满。但欧盟法院可能很快就会对这些规定－－至少当中某些规定－－施加一些打击。欧盟的初步裁决认为，在丹麦出生并取名的德国公民莱昂哈德作为欧盟的公民有权使用带连字号的姓氏。
德国是一个崇尚秩序、尊重传统的国家，关于取名的规定目的在于确保德国孩子不会被人取笑或混淆其名。例如，根据规定，名字一定要反映出性别，否则就要另取一个性别清楚的名字。
“在我的记忆当中，这些规定一直就有，”德国语言协会(German Language Society)主席卡林?M?艾克霍夫－赛勒斯(Karin M. Eichhoff-Cyrus)说。德国语言协会受国家资助，旨在推行这些命名规定。“谁都知道，不能取一个叫'冰箱'之类的名字。”
但为什么不能有连字号呢？艾克霍夫－赛勒斯博士婚后使用复姓，但不允许传给自己的孩子。她解释说，这样规定是为了避免连字号使姓名越来越长。假如一个复姓的男孩长大后跟另一名复姓的女子结婚，他们的孩子就会有四个姓，孩子的孩子就会有八个姓，依此类推，孙子的下一代就会有十六个姓。一想到此，官员们就不寒而栗。
所有德国人都到Standesamt或当地相关机构登记姓名。每个地方的登记标准有所不同，被拒绝的申请人可以向法院申诉。当局通常对“名”比对“姓”要更灵活。据语言协会称，过去几年被批准的名字当中，有来自卡通人物的名字“庞穆克尔” (Pumuckl)和来自一种软饮料的“百事卡罗拉”(Pepsi-Carola)。被拒绝的有“列宁”、“麦当劳”、“Schnucki”和“Bierstubl”。Bierstubl大概可以翻译为“小啤酒吧”。
杜塞尔多夫法院(Dusseldorf)1998年拒绝批准“Chenekwahow Migiskau Nikapi-Hun-Nizeo Alessandro Majim Chayara Inti Ernesto Prithibi Kioma Pathar Henriko”这个名字，理由是尽管提出申请的这位母亲希望尊重多元文化，但不应该给孩子起一个冗长而累赘的名字。而同年，法兰克福法院则批准了“耶稣”(Jesus)这个名字，部分理由是人们普遍都知道耶稣是男的，不太可能产生性别混淆的问题。
德国并不是唯一一个管制取名的欧洲国家。例如，斯洛伐克就禁止公民使用古怪、挖苦性或滑稽可笑的名字（例如，父母不能给孩子起名叫“香烟”）。斯洛伐克一般也禁止使用带连字号的复姓，但内务部表示，生活在斯洛伐克的复姓外国人可以例外。当地人可以有两个姓氏，但不能带连字号。
不过在比利时，当局1997年未批准几名父母是西班牙籍和比利时籍公民的孩子将名字改为西班牙式的复姓：“没有充分的理由向国王陛下请求允许你更改你的姓氏。”这几名父母随后向欧盟法院申诉，并胜诉。而英国则对取名不加任何约束。
在德国，语言协会可以帮助人们处理这个棘手的问题。协会每年要回复几千个请求，人们在前往Standesamt登记之前向协会咨询关于取名方面的建议。越来越多的请求来自亚洲、非洲或中东的移民，他们必须证明自己并不试图逃避。比如，一个相当于“Moon Unit Zappa”的中国名字就获得了批准，没有引起德国当局的怀疑。
协会在20个国家设立了分支机构，它们调查非德文名字是否符合德国的规定。例如，这样的名字在原籍国家必须有人使用。对此，有一点可以作为参考：书籍或报纸上出现使用这个名字的人。协会还负责确认一个名字的性别。然后协会把发现结果写成意见，名字申请人可以把意见呈给登记部门。“我们的意见几乎从未遭到过拒绝，”艾克霍夫－赛勒斯博士说。
最近，有一对夫妇向协会咨询建议，他们想给女儿起名叫“Chanel”。“这个名字很漂亮，但它是一个品牌的名字，”艾克霍夫－赛勒斯博士说。有时，德国政府允许人们更改教名。慕尼克一家法院批准一个男子改掉“鲁道夫”(Adolf)这个名字，因为它让人联想到希特勒。法院也承认变性者有权更改其尊称，如把“Frau”（德文的“夫人”）改为“Herr”（德文的“先生”），反之亦然。
莱昂哈德和母亲一起住在丹麦。丹麦是欧盟成员国，允许名字带连字号，因此莱昂哈德的名字在那里没有什么麻烦。这个个案在欧盟法院的受理范围之内，并由此产生了一个问题：既然公民可以自由地搬到另一个取名不受管制的欧盟成员国，一个欧盟成员国是否能合法地维持其对公民的取名管制？
在4月份，莱昂哈德的父亲格林金乘坐夜班火车从汉堡赶到欧盟法院所在地－－卢森堡，德国地方法院把他这个关于连字号的案件转交给了欧盟法院。格林金在一组身著红袍的法官面前讲述了自己的家事：他的妻子保罗医生结婚后保留了自己的娘家姓，儿子莱昂哈德出生在丹麦；2003年他们离婚，莱昂哈德跟随母亲住在丹麦；保罗在丹麦从医，儿子也合法地保留了复姓。
格林金解释说，他们三人仍然是德国公民，不过现在，当儿子从十几英里外越过边境来德国和他一起住时，那孩子马上就没有姓氏了。德国当局建议把连字号去掉，但格林金争论道，这样会使自己的家传姓氏沦为儿子的一个中间名。“我可是孩子的父亲！”他说。“但他们说，在德国孩子必须接受另一个不同的名字。用他母亲的名字吗？”
格林金向法院请求说：“我和前妻特意给孩子选了一个复姓，德国政府插手这件事是说不通的。”
德国政府的代表律师艾尔弗雷德?迪特里奇(Alfred Dittrich)反驳道：“问题在于这对父母选择了一个他们知道－－肯定已经知道－－在德国是不合法的名字。”
格林金叹叹了口气，翻了个白眼。
听证会后的两个月，格林金得到了一些辩护。欧盟的建议意见－－通常预示著法官最终将如何裁决－－认为德国不准使用连字号的做法“完全不符合”莱昂哈德作为一名欧盟公民的权利。最终判决预计于今年底公布。
