Three brothers change their surnames embarrassingly: it can be done in Italia

Gone with the surname which is a source ofembarrassment. In Italia it can be done andthree brothers have taken advantage of this to ask and obtainfrom the prefect permission to swipe the surname"Bocchini" to replace it with the more "neutral" maternal one"Muratori". Leading the way, with an application made in 2022 and accepted a year later, was the middle brother who had already come of age. The first yes from the prefecture allowed lawyer Cinzia Novelli, who followed the family, to re-propose the same application, with the approval of the father, also for the other two, invoking Article 3 of the Constitution, on the right to equal treatment in equal situations, as well as Article 97 of the Charter on the consistency of administrative action. In addition, different surnames would have made it difficult to recognise the boys as brothers.

Consistency was not lacking, not least because the Dpr (396/2000) provides for the possibility of changing a'ridiculous or shameful' surname. The step was possible given that, although they had not suffered true acts of bullying, the brothers were the subject of"bad jokes". One obstacle could have been the age of the applicants who, however young, had acquired their own identity with their birth surname. But even this problem was overcome. "Over the public interest in stability and certainty of identity," explains lawyer Cinzia Novelli, "the subjective interest in replacing the embarrassing surname prevailed. A removal that took place before the university entrance. When, hopefully, the jokes might have been over.