Germany launches plan to relax rigid family name system

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s justice minister has launched plans to relax the country’s strict restrictions on family names — for example, allowing couples to take double-barreled surnames and pass them on to their children. The minister said as he published the draft legislation on Tuesday that the current system “is about as up-to-date as a coal stove and as flexible as concrete.” The legislation, which is supposed to take effect at the beginning of 2025, still requires the approval of the Cabinet and parliament. It is one of several social reform projects that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s socially liberal three-party governing coalition agreed to embark on when it took office in December 2021.