Naming your child

Naming your child

All children must have a name before they are 6 months old.

The form for naming a child (navngivning) is at www.borger.dk and both parents must sign with NEM-ID.

If the parents are not married, the child cannot get the father´s name until the paternity is established.

If one or both parents do not have a Danish cpr-number or NEM-ID, you can print the form “navngivning” from www.personregistrering.dk. On the front page you click on the top word at the left of the page – “Fødsel” – on the next page in the top right corner, it will say “udskriv blanketter” click on this, and on the next page you will find the form to print. The top links on the page send you directly to borger.dk, so you have to scroll down a litte to find the paper forms for printing. Both parents sign the form, and it is mailed or delivered to the parish office.

According to Danish Law of Names, you can have more than one first name, (which will be independent names unless you put a hyphen between them), more than one middle name (which is a name you can also get as a last name, a family name), but only one last name. You can combine last names with a hyphen, to make it one name.

If one or both parents are not born in Denmark, and have not changed their name in Denmark, we need to see some papers so origin and spelling of names can be verified.

Either

Birth-/Christening papers from the birth country

Or

Passport from the birth country plus Danish residence permit (both)

Or

Citizenship papers - if you are a Danish citizen, and cannot provide birth papers.

(Danish passport is NOT sufficient, as it is a print of the information we need to verify)

Verification has to be in order before the child can be named.

If you come from a country, where it is custom that the child has father´s first name as either middle name or last name, if your child should get a gender based last name, if you want a last name that is not approved in Denmark, or an unapproved first name, that the parish clerk cannot approve, the naming is sent to Statsforvaltningen, who have up to 6 months processing time. 

You are welcome to contact the parish office if you have any questions.