As many as 1,988 applications to change the name or surname were submitted to the local civil status services in 2020. Of these, 1,930 were accepted and only 58 were rejected. In the first two months of this year, there were filed 384 such applications and 373 of them were accepted, while 11 were rejected.

In a response to an inquiry made by IPN, the Public Services Agency said the most often reasons invoked in the applications is the wish to return to the family name before marriage, if the person didn’t do it when divorcing, the wish to bear the stepfather’s or stepmother’s last name and/or the name of another person who took part in the education of the applicant and also the wish to have the same surname as the husband, if the person didn’t do it when marrying. The persons also ask to have the name changed because this is pronounced with difficult, is not euphonious, sounds ridiculous or was distorted as a result of translation.

Under the law on civil status documents, the person who turned 16 can have the surname changed. Before the age of 16, the change is made by the civil status service based on the application of both of the parents.

The name or surname cannot be changed if the person is investigated or was tried and wasn’t rehabilitated or if the surname will consists of three surnames as a result of merger. It is also not allowed transliterating the name or surname with Latin letters based on the orthographic rules of a foreign language or by using diacritics.

The Public Services Agency said that even if the parents have the right to choose a name for the child, the civil status service can refuse to register names that consist of indecent or ridiculous words.

Among the rarest boy names in Moldova are Anastasie, Aron-Ștefan, Cafer, Darwin, Demetrius, Dominic, Philippe, Enriko, Henry, Ioannis, Pantelemon, Salvador, Varfolomei, while among girl names the most unusual are Audrey, Briella-Damaris, Gulirano, Iliada, Karelya, Leontina, Nailin, Niki, Sare Nil, Stana, Teoctista, Zilia, Maia-Rebeca, Roza.

The Public Services Agency’s data concerning birth documents show in 2020 there were registered 27,274 children, 14,306 of whom were boys, while 12,968 were girls.