Facts
The appellant A.X.-Y., born in 1959, is the daughter of B.R. and C.R. In 1964, the marriage of her parents was divorced, and the mother shortly thereafter married Y. At the request of the mother, the Cantonal Government of Schaffhausen approved in 1967 that A.R. and her two brothers adopt the family name "Y.".
In 1989, A.Y. acquired the family name "X." through her marriage and thereafter bore the combined name "X.-Y.". In 2008, A.X.-Y. applied to the municipal office of the Canton of Zurich to change her name from "X.-Y." to "R. X.". The Directorate of Justice and Home Affairs of the Canton of Zurich rejected the application, as did the High Court of the Canton of Zurich. Thereupon, A.X.-Y. filed a civil law appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It stated that a person's civil name is generally immutable. A name change can only be approved for important reasons if the interest of the name bearer in a new name outweighs the interest of the general public and the administration in the immutability of the name.
In the present case, the Federal Supreme Court saw no such important reasons. The appellant claimed to suffer from psychological problems that could be alleviated by the name change. However, the medical certificate she submitted was not considered sufficiently comprehensible to demonstrate the medical connection between the name change and…