Your Surname After Marriage in Germany: Options and Steps

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Your options under German law

Nobody in Germany has to change their name after marrying.¹ If you choose nothing, each of you keeps the name you had at the wedding.² If you want a shared name, you have three options. Take Anna Weber and James Miller as an example:

• Married name (Ehename): you choose it together. It can be the birth name of either of you, or the name either of you carries at the time of the declaration — for example, a name from an earlier marriage.² One partner alone can’t decide it.³
• Double name (Doppelname): since 1 May 2025, the married name can combine one name of each of you. The two parts are joined by a hyphen, unless you declare that you want them without one.² A double name has at most two parts. If one of you already has a double name, only one part of it can be used.² With a double name as the married name, an accompanying name is no longer possible.³
• Accompanying name (Begleitname): if the married name is one partner’s name, the other can put their own birth name or current name before or after it. By default it is written without a hyphen; you can ask for one.⁴ You can drop the accompanying name again once. After that, you can’t add a new one.⁴

Children: a child born to parents with a married name gets that name automatically. If you choose a married name later, children under five take it too; older children only if they join the declaration.³

Which country’s law decides your name

Since 1 May 2025, your name follows the law of the country where you habitually live — not your nationality.⁵ For couples who live in Germany, that means German law and the options above, even if neither of you is German.³

You can choose another law instead: that of a country of which one of you is a citizen, or where one of you habitually lives. You can make this choice at the wedding or later. A later choice has to be certified.⁵ A Spanish partner, for example, could choose Spanish law for the couple’s names. What that law allows is something the registry office advises on.³

The new rules don’t apply backwards. Names fixed before 1 May 2025 stay as they are unless you make a new declaration.¹ Couples who already had a married name on 1 May 2025 can switch to a double name made from both names, or cancel the married name, with a certified declaration.⁵

When and where to declare your name

At the wedding: the usual moment. The registry office asks about your name when you register the marriage, and the registrar asks again on the wedding day.³⁶ The married name is meant to be chosen at the wedding; only a later declaration has to be certified.²

Later: you can choose a married name at any time while you are married — there is no deadline.³ The declaration then has to be publicly certified, at a registry office or by a notary. If you live abroad, contact the German consulate. The declaration takes effect when the responsible registry office receives it.³

Which registry office:

1. the one that recorded your wedding;
2. after a wedding abroad, the one that entered your marriage in the German register;
3. otherwise, the one where one of you lives, or last lived in Germany;
4. if none of these applies, Standesamt I in Berlin.⁶

What to bring: both of your IDs, the marriage certificate, and foreign documents in multilingual form or with a translation by a sworn translator. Sometimes the office also asks for birth certificates or proof of earlier marriages.³ In Cologne, both of you have to come in person to choose a married name after a wedding abroad.⁷

It’s final: once chosen, a married name can’t be revoked while the marriage lasts.³ Only the accompanying name can be dropped, once.⁴ After a divorce or the death of a spouse, you keep the married name — or take back your birth name or the name you had before.²

Married abroad? The same rules apply. If your marriage isn’t in a German register, the registry office where you live takes the declaration.⁶ What else to do after a wedding abroad: married abroad.

What a later name declaration costs

The Munich fees come from the city’s page on name changes after marriage³, Berlin’s from the fee list of its registry offices⁸ and Cologne’s from its page on entering a marriage abroad.⁷

What to update after a name change

Your new name is recorded with the marriage, but your documents don’t change by themselves.

• German ID card and passport: an ID card or passport with a name that is no longer correct is invalid.⁹ After a name change at the wedding, you need a new ID card unless you have a valid passport in the new name. Children’s documents with an old name become invalid too.¹⁰ The law also asks you to show your ID card to the ID office without delay when an entry in it is wrong.⁹ Munich names new ID documents as one of the uses of the marriage certificate.³
• Foreign passport: a foreign national living in Germany has to apply promptly for a new or amended passport once details in it are wrong.¹¹ Whether your home country records the new name is up to its own authorities. Your embassy or consulate can tell you.
• Residence permit card: the immigration office in Nuremberg, for example, says a name change means a new card for the electronic residence permit. The permit itself stays valid; only the card is replaced.¹² Ask your own immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) how it handles this.
• Registration office and tax office: after a wedding in Germany, the registry office reports the marriage to the registration office.³ The registration office passes your marital status on to the Federal Central Tax Office, which sets your tax class.¹³ How the classes compare: tax classes in Germany.
• Bank, insurers and everyone else: they don’t learn of your new name automatically. Munich lists banks and insurers among the places to show the marriage certificate.³ Tell your employer, landlord and health insurer as well, so contracts and payslips carry the right name.

A partner from outside the EU who has just married also needs the spouse residence permit: spouse visa for Germany. How the wedding at the registry office works, from registration to certificate: registry office wedding in Germany. A partner from abroad may need a certificate of no impediment first. All guides: getting married in Germany.

Part of getting married in Germany. After the wedding: after-the-wedding checklist · taxes after the wedding. See also: divorce.

Frequently Asked Questions