Among the many legal treatises in China, very few scholars pay attention to the study of my country’s “Citizen’s Name Law”. The main laws related to names in our country include Article 9 of the General Principles of the Civil Law: "A citizen (natural person) has the capacity for civil rights from birth to death, enjoys civil rights in accordance with the law, and assumes civil obligations"; Article 16 of the Marriage Law "Children can take their father's surname or their mother's surname"; Article 2 of the "Household Registration Regulations" "Citizens of the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of China must complete household registration in accordance with the provisions of these regulations", "Household registration of active military personnel" , shall be handled by military agencies in accordance with the relevant regulations governing active military personnel"; Article 6 "Citizens shall be registered as permanent residents in the place where they usually live, and a citizen can only be registered as permanent residents in one place"; Article 7 "After the birth of a baby Within one month, the head of the household, relatives, caregivers or neighbors shall apply for birth registration at the household registration authority at the place where the baby usually resides.” "For abandoned babies, the adopter or caregiver shall apply to the household registration authority for birth registration." Article 18 “Citizens who change their names must follow the following regulations: (1) When a person under the age of 18 needs to change his or her name, he or his parents or adopters must apply for change registration to the household registration authority; (2) Those who are 18 years old When the above persons need to change their names, they must apply to the household registration authority for change registration." Article 6 of the "Regulations on Resident Identity Cards" "Citizens shall apply for a resident identity card to the household registration authority at the place where their permanent residence is located, and complete the application procedures in accordance with regulations." It can be seen that at present, our country's laws have not formally stipulated a series of legal norms such as the rights and obligations of natural persons' names.
my country is a country with a large population. It is quite common for citizens to have the same surname or the same pronunciation of their names, and the repetition rate of people with different surnames and the same name is also extremely high. In fact, all natural persons should have a first and last name. The surname is a symbol that represents the family system, and the given name is a symbol that represents an individual. It can distinguish a natural person from other members of society. Because people take their names very seriously and choose names with rich connotations and positive qualities. Everyone combines "di" with more than 2,000 Chinese characters that mean "good", which is the fundamental reason for the high repetition rate of names. The high rate of name duplication not only brings considerable inconvenience to citizens' personal lives, but also adversely affects the normal operation of society and the country's economic construction to varying degrees.
②Name is a symbol that distinguishes each natural person from other members of society. The right to name is one of the important contents of citizens’ personal rights. The right to name has the following important contents:
1) Every natural person has the right to enjoy one or several names.
(2) Every natural person’s symbol must be registered through legal authorization. The law gives parents and elders the right to name a baby.
(3) Every natural person has his or her father’s or mother’s surname, and his or her parents have no right to give up their children’s right to take their father’s or mother’s surname during the legally authorized naming stage. Otherwise it will be deemed as infringement.
(4) Every natural person has the right to have a legitimate name, which must not have discriminatory or tragic connotations. For example, names such as "devil", "goblin", "one-eyed", etc. are not allowed.
(5) Each natural person shall, in accordance with the law, use his legally registered name for admission, medical treatment, study, work, marriage, inheritance, deposits, litigation, speech, etc.
(6) Every natural person has the right to exclusive use of a name in a region, which is the right to exclude third parties.
(7) Every natural person has the right to request legal relief from judicial or government agencies to protect his or her name rights.
(8) The right to name terminates with the death of a natural person, and relevant cancellation procedures should be completed. No one is allowed to use the name of the deceased or infringe on the name right of the deceased.
③ Our country’s legislative, judicial and administrative management of legal person names has a history of several years and has achieved quite successful experience.
The legal work on the property rights of natural persons' names can be carried out with reference to the legal normative model for the management of legal persons' names. In addition, the "Name Ordinance" implemented in Taiwan of my country also has high reference value. In order to stimulate research and discussion on the legislation of the right of name in the legal community, this article will discuss the structural assumptions of the future name law in my country based on the current situation of the name law in my country for reference by relevant departments.
1. The current status of our country’s name law. From the previous introduction to the law, our country’s current name law legislation, jurisdiction and administration are in a chaotic system with inconsistent standards. The expression is unclear, the connotation is inconsistent, and the operability is poor. Mainly in the following aspects:
1. The right to name has no clear meaning. How should a natural person’s name be chosen? Who will replace it? What are the naming rules? Who has the right to change the name? How to change it? Is it possible to not take the father's and mother's surname? Who regulates? How are violations punished? How to protect name rights?
2. The name registration procedure is simple and has poor operability. As a registration agency for citizens' names and identities, can they not examine whether the acquisition of a newborn baby's name is in line with social ethics? Is registration allowed? What are the censorship rules? What is the procedure for the director's meeting? Wait, the current law obviously does not provide for this.
3. Obtaining a name is absolutely liberal. No social system allows citizens to enjoy absolute freedoms. However, the rights of Chinese citizens are absolutely liberalized, which results in a high rate of name duplication, which brings considerable inconvenience to the country, society and citizens' lives, and some even cause greater economic losses and mental harm.
4. There are no prohibitive rules on how to choose a name. my country's trademark sand requires explicit prohibitions on the text of relevant trademarks. There are also prohibitions on naming places in urban streets. For example, places cannot be named after the names of national leaders. In contrast, there are no prohibitive norms for the naming of citizens in our country, which has resulted in some citizens taking strange, foreign, ugly, and notorious names, which seriously violates socialist spiritual civilization and morality.
5. There are few legal protection regulations for names. The protection of the names of Chinese citizens is generally scattered in the "General Principles of Civil Law", "Criminal Law" and civil law interpretations. It has not become an independent system of legal norms. Due to insufficient protection, it has brought a dilemma to judicial operations.
6. The legal theory research on names is lagging behind. The author believes that there are not many research results in this area in our country's legal circles, and there is no theoretical system. All citizens of the Republic of China have the right to obtain a legal name from the day of birth. In order to facilitate national management, it is stipulated that a citizen can only obtain one name, and the original name consists of: Han citizens should use both Han and Chinese pinyin to register. Non-Han citizens can use the characters of their own ethnic group, but they should use Hanyu Pinyin (the overall purpose is to be in line with international standards and computerized management). It is not allowed to obtain two or more names. The legally registered name is called the original name.
(2) Principle of registration approval and announcement
Citizens’ names must be obtained in accordance with legal procedures and must be registered with the name registration authority. Approval documents should be issued to be valid. When citizens need to change their names, they should also go through the change procedures in accordance with the law. The management agency should regularly publish the list of newly registered names so that people can refer to it when choosing names in the future to avoid duplication.
(3) Principles for citizens to use their legal real names
Citizens should use their real names in the acquisition, establishment, transfer, and modification of property rights: Citizens should use their real names when applying for academic qualifications, qualifications, licenses, and other certificates; citizens should use their real names when depositing banks; citizens should use their real names when participating in politics and deliberation, such as elections. In addition, the law should stipulate that citizens have the right to use pen names, translated names, stage names, aliases, pseudonyms, pseudonyms, etc.
(4) Principles for citizens to legally change their surnames
Citizens can change their surnames if they are adopted as children in stages in accordance with the "Adoption Law"; If the adoption relationship is terminated, it is also allowed to apply to change the surname, but legal registration procedures must be completed.