If a proposal by Jalisco state legislator Claudia Murguía becomes law, this state will become the fourth in Mexico to allow parents to change the order of their offspring’s two surnames.
Historically, birth certificates of all newborns in Mexico contain the surnames of both the father and mother – in that order. If Juan Pablo’s father is called Manuel Gomez Farias and his mother Alejandra Lopez Jimenez, he will forever be known as Juan Pablo Gomez Lopez.
Under Murguía’s proposal, the parents will have the right to officially name their son Juan Pablo Lopez Gomez. However, all subsequent siblings must follow the same pattern, and the order cannot be altered at a later date.
Speaking to Spanish-language daily Mural, Murguía said that Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that there was no legal impediment to parents deciding to change the order of their offspring’s surnames.
According to Murguía, when there is no agreement between the father and mother as to the order of the surnames, the Civil Registry must take it upon itself to decide by means of a lottery.
Only three states have so far changed their laws to reflect the Supreme Court ruling: Yucatán, Estado de México and Morelos.