Changing a transgender person’s name to their chosen one: how it works in Ukraine

Even without going through the sex correction procedure, transgender people have the right to change their first and last name — yet at civil registry offices (RATsS) they may be told otherwise.

The official procedure for obtaining permission to change the “sex” field in official documents in Ukraine can take several years, because it involves being registered with a psychiatrist for at least a year, a mandatory psychiatric examination in an inpatient facility, and expensive and risky medical interventions, including sterilization. Along the way, people often face stigmatization, conflicts, the deliberate dragging out of the process and corruption risks. On top of that, some transgender people do not consider it acceptable for themselves to agree to the medical interventions and other discriminatory requirements that Ukrainian legislation sets out for the legal recognition of sex correction.

So some people decide to begin by changing their name to one that matches their gender identity.

Why is this needed? Why can’t you simply disregard what is written in your passport and introduce yourself by the name you want? There are several reasons. The first is mundane: in every situation that involved official documents, I heard the male name I hate, even though I identify as a woman. Second, some people (quite possibly with the aim of stigmatizing me) deliberately asked what my formal name was, or drew attention to the mismatch between my passport name and my appearance.

Third, when I was trying to find work, the name given on my resume or in my byline and the one that appeared in my official documents did not match.

I think many transgender people could add a great deal more to this list.

So I decided to change my first and last name. I wanted my official documents to show not the name written down at my birth, but my own name, the one I identify with. Having learned that Article 295 of the Civil Code of Ukraine provides that “an individual who has reached the age of sixteen has the right to change their last name and/or their first name at their own discretion,” I head to the civil registry office.

To my surprise, instead of simply accepting the application, the clerk starts telling me that without changing the “sex” field from male to  female I supposedly have no right to take the name I have chosen, since it is commonly perceived as a female name.

There had already been similar attempts, she said, both at her registry office and at others, but they supposedly have some kind of “internal documents” that do not allow this option.

Instead of “Lora,” for instance, I was advised to look up and go through a list of neutral names — “Lori” was one of the suggestions. The registry office clerk said all of this in a fairly friendly, calm tone, and I was already inclined to believe her and agree to that compromise.

What is more, the official also gave an example of a transgender person who, before sex correction, had tried at their registry office to change their name to one that matched their identity, but in the end agreed to a gender-neutral one.

As far as I know, there have been other cases in which transgender people did not risk contradicting officials. Still, I decided to look through the legislation more closely.

The Article 295 of the Civil Code of Ukraine mentioned above sets out a clear list of grounds for refusing a name change: the applicant being under investigation, on trial or under administrative supervision; having a criminal record that has not been expunged or lifted in the manner established by law; an official request from the law enforcement agencies of a foreign state to put the applicant on a wanted list; and the submission of false information about oneself. None of these grounds applied to me. Attempts to find other legal provisions that might stand in the way of exercising a lawful right, or precedents in which a name change had been banned in cases like mine, also produced nothing.

I head to the registry office again. Now I am told that once the application is filed, they will order… a philological examination of the name’s gender. But hold on. The Civil Code provides for no analysis of a name’s gender whatsoever. And civil servants have no right to act at their own discretion; they must be guided solely by the law. So I explain that under the law I have the right to file an application asking to change my first and last name, and that registry office staff are obliged to accept and consider it. After that they must either allow the change of the first and/or last name, or issue an official, reasoned refusal, which can be appealed in court.

As expected, the review process stretched from the one month I had been told to expect at the registry office to three – the maximum period allowed by law.

At one point I got a call from a Ministry of Internal Affairs office (which evidently had to check whether I had a criminal record), offering that I come by, pick up the documents and take them to the registry office myself, thereby speeding up the review. It is quite possible they really did decide to help me, but since the law made no provision for that kind of “speeding up,” I decided not to take the risk.

Three months later I was issued a certificate of name change.

The attitude of the officials while I was filling in the forms and collecting the document varied — from entirely friendly to disapprovingly pitying, along the lines of: “Oh, how wrong all this is…,” “And do you really need it? You will be changing everything again later anyway — can’t you wait?”.

Another month was needed for the passport itself to be produced.

Now I am Lora in my official documents too.

It is a pity, of course, that for now the “sex” field, and the patronymic as well, cannot be changed simply on one’s own application, as is the case in a number of European countries — but even this step makes life considerably easier.

To sum up. To change your own first and last name (and not your sex and not your patronymic), an application is enough. The procedure for the state registration of a change of name of an individual who is a citizen of Ukraine is described in more detail on the Ministry of Justice website – The procedure for the state registration of a change of name of an individual who is a citizen of Ukraine. Before heading to the registry office, it is worth familiarizing yourself with it.

Author: Lora Palmer, Lviv