German triple-barrelled ban holds
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/europe/8034662.stm Version 0 of 1. Germany's highest court has upheld a law which makes it illegal for anyone to use more than two last names. A married couple challenged the 1993 law after they were forbidden from joining their surnames - one of which is already a double-barrelled name. Frieda Rosemarie Thalheim married Hans-Peter Kunz-Hallstein in 1997 but both had wanted to retain their surnames. The court ruled surnames made of three or more different names made it more difficult to trace back a family line. After the ruling, Hans-Peter Kunz-Hallstein told the BBC he and his wife were disappointed. "We're married," he said, "and we want to show it." |