Lithuania’s justice minister has officially changed the spelling of her name under a new law allowing people to use non-Lithuanian characters in their ID documents. The minister, who is of Polish background, will spell her name Ewelina Dobrowolska.
“Thirty-three years, over 130 court cases won, two years in politics. That’s how long it has taken me to be able to write my name today in its original form, the way I wrote it when for 12 years in school, the way I saw it written on Olympiad certificates and the way my mother wrote my name,” she posted on Facebook on Tuesday.
Before the change, her name was spelled Evelina Dobrovolska.
Several Lithuanian politicians of Polish descent have also applied to change the spelling of their names.
After decades of debate, a law that came into force on May 1 states that Lithuanian citizens can use non-Lithuanian Latin characters – Q, W, and X – in their names in ID documents.
However, the law does not allow using diacritic characters, such as Ä or Ł. Moreover, people who want to use the possibility need to prove the non-Lithuanian provenance of their name.
Members of ethnic minorities are required to officially declare their ethnicity to change their surname.
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