The Constitutional Court of Kyrgyzstan has recently revisited and overturned its prior decision that granted citizens the right to choose a match instead of a patronymic, as reported on the court’s official website.
As the publication recalls, on June 30, the Constitutional Court ruled that adult Kyrgyzstanis have the right to independently choose whether to leave their patronymic name in their documents or to assign a match name to themselves. This exception primarily aimed to accommodate individuals who had undergone life tragedies, experienced psychological or physical trauma, or harbored negative sentiments linked to their fathers. Such individuals, for various reasons, refrained from adopting a male name as part of their full name.
The Constitutional Court clarified that its previous ruling specifically pertained to the naming model established during the USSR era (comprising first name, surname, and patronymic). It did not address the practice of assigning names according to national traditions, which involves terms such as “uulu,” “kyzy,” and “tegin.”
