The right to have a Slovenian name and surname

Recently, we have observed that a constantly increasing number of members of the Slovenian minority in Italy decided to claim back their original surnames or to obtain a Slovenian form of their names. By doing so they try to solve the problem where the Slovenian community knows them with a name, the Italian with another.

After the Law for the protection of the Slovenian minority was approved, this process is much simpler and free. This represents a further incentive, but often it gets caught up in trivial issues: what to do, how to submit an application, where to submit it, etc.

This manual was created in order to present a concise summary of the available legal resources according to which every citizen has the right to have his/her name and surname written in its original form. Moreover, the manual s aim is also to provide an overview of the legal provisions governing this procedure and offer practical tips and examples.

This brochure will allow you to view all the necessary information and simplify the procedure.

On this occasion we would like to thank all our collaborators, who have participated to the preparation of this brochure, especially the friendly staff of the Office for the Slovenian minority at the Municipality of Gorizia (Tanja Curto and Nika Simoniti Jenko) for the useful advises they gave us for finding the relevant material.