You must apply in writing to change your first name.

• Ask your competent authority for the application form or download it and fill it in completely. For minors, the legal representative makes the application.
• Set out in detail the reasons for your application. The authority must weigh up and decide, taking into account all the circumstances of the individual case. The public interest in retaining the name weighs more heavily the longer the name has been used.
• Your competent authority collects an advance on fees and then carries out the necessary investigations. In the case of persons over 14 years of age, it involves various agencies, such as the police. It obtains information from the debtors' register at the local court and, if necessary, from other offices.
• If the requirements are met, you will receive a certificate confirming the change of name. The name change becomes effective when the certificate is handed over. Otherwise you will receive a notice of refusal.
• The name change authority notifies other bodies of your name change. These include
  • the registration office,
  • the registry office that keeps the birth register,
  • the registry office that keeps the marriage register or the civil partnership register.
• As soon as the change of name has become effective, you must have various documents (identity card, passport, vehicle registration document) changed. You must apply for these changes yourself.

Note: If another person is involved, for example the other parent when changing the name of a child after the parents have divorced, you will initially only receive a notice of the name change. This will state that you must wait until the name change can no longer be challenged by legal means. In these cases, the name change becomes effective under the following conditions:

• The other person involved accepts the name change, or
• The opposition authority or the courts confirm the name change.