Do transgenders have right to change their names before changing their sex officially? The approach of Turkish courts

Abstract

As a rule, it is not accepted for a person to change his or her name in Turkey. Although the unchangeability principle of name is in effect, according to Turkish Civil Code, when there is a justifiable reason, this principal reverses. The personal reasons or reasons arising from family relations or relating to commercial activities may constitute the justifiable reason which grounds the name change request. In this context, if one’s name puts an obstacle for that person to live properly in a society, then that person’s request should be acceptable. For instance Turkish judges accepts the name change requests of the claimant in many cases when the official name in the personal registry documents does not correspond with the known name of that person. In 2017, a transgender person who is known as “D.” among his friends but registered officially as “H.”, claimed a name change request but the judge of the first instance court in Ankara rejected this claim. The reason for rejection was that the claimant’s requested name of “D.” is a name for females and the claimant have not changed the current gender yet. The court also states that, changing a name of a man called “H.” to a woman’s name “D.” would breach the order in the society. Dramatically, the regional court affirmed the decision of the first instance court. The approach of both courts to this dispute unfortunately gendered the names in a society and applies the current law differently which is unequal for transgender persons. Eventually, the claimant brought this decision before Turkish Constitutional Court which granted a decision indicating that the right to respect the privacy has breached. According to these explanations, we aim to discuss the justness of transgender persons’ name change request before their sex change process as per to Turkish Civil Code which is a long, expensive and a challenging way, by explaining the conditions of two situations as per to law and by referring current court decisions.