Some months ago, the Estonian interior ministry presented an amendment to existing legislation on changing personal names. Experience had shown that people often petition the courts to make their names more “Estonian”, thus making it easier to integrate into the Estonian community.
According to Pravda, this legislative change has been put on the agenda now to distract people from the impending economic collapse of the country.
In Estonia the question arose as to how the state should respond to people who want Estonian sounding names. It was decided to welcome and accommodate such petitions.
The amendment in legislation does not simplify the petitioning and change procedure. It only adds one more reason under which a petition for a name change is possible.
The current legislation details eight reasons for name changes: if a name is complicated and pronunciation in Estonian is difficult; if the same name is owned by many others with the same birthdate; if individuals want to preserve and pass on names of parents and grandparents.
Current law also includes “some other compelling reason, which the minister considers sufficient.” Many have offered the “other compelling reason” – social integration – as the basis for applying for a name change.
Pravda twisted the intent of the legislative change and blared that “a nationalist campaign has been initiated to humiliate the Russian population.” “The Estonian interior ministry intends to legislate a name change law, which will force people to take Estonian names if they want to integrate into society,” blasted Pravda.
Pravda picked some examples of name changes, of ”Estonianizations”: Novikov to Noovikoff; Nikitin to Niikitinn; Peterenko to Petereenk; Kovalenko to Kovaalenk. None of the changed names is typically Estonian. In fact they appear to be artificial, somewhat ridiculous.
Reference is also made to the Estonianization of names in the l930’s. Tens of thousands of Estonians wanted Estonian names changed from German names given to their families many generations previous by local Baltic (German) barons. Pravda mentions this campaign to have stopped when Estonian was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941.
To equate the current facilitation of changing names to the campaign of the 1930-s is a gross misrepresentation of the situation. Seventy-five years ago Estonians wanted Estonian names. Presently, some Russians expect the social integration process to be easier with an Estonian sounding name.
We all remember the 1950-s when Jaan changed to John, Ants to Hans, Urmas to Arnie, Voldemar to Wally. Whether it helped or not, but integration was the goal.