Anyone who is named after well-known digital language assistants such as Siri or Alexa has the right to change their first name in the event of mental stress. According to its own statements, the administrative court in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, decided on Thursday in a legal dispute between a girl and a city administration. The girl’s parents wanted to enforce the right to change their daughter’s name because she suffered greatly from bullying.
According to the court, the responsible city administration rejected the application, which is why there was a process. The judges concluded that the plaintiff’s psychological distress at preschool age justified the change. The parents have described numerous incidents of harassment, for example when other people gave the child “orders” like a language assistant. The child may therefore add a second name to its first name.
According to the court, the authority had argued that the burden had not been proven by medical or psychological reports. The judges rated the individual request for a name change higher than the public interest in keeping the name the same, since the plaintiff was not yet able to counteract the harassment because of her young age.
In principle, mental stress does not necessarily have to reach the extent of an illness requiring treatment, provided it is understandable and justified. In addition, there is the fact that the name of the language assistant is very well known and it is not just a pure product name. It is also used explicitly to give orders. This, in turn, invites people of the same name to bother them.
