The Swiss canton of Zurich, an administrative unit of Switzerland, has been offering large discounts on official name changes – if they were combined with a change of the applicants’ official gender.
As Swiss newspaper NZZ reported on May 7, a name change generally cost 600 Swiss francs (€641) but if combined with a change of official gender, the price dropped by almost 90 per cent to 75 francs (€80).
The newspaper recounted the recent case of a woman in Zurich whose teenage son wanted to legally get rid of his second name – which he had from his now-estranged father.
The boy’s mother was informed she would have to pay the 600 francs fee, half that if she was eligible for a fee reduction.
She was reportedly informed that there was a cheaper option: If her son changed his name and his official gender, the combination price would drop to 75 francs.
Zurich currently only allowed “male” or “female” as official genders. The potential introduction of a third gender category was under review by the Swiss Government.
Puzzled by the difference in cost, the woman inquired at the Swiss Federal Office of Justice and then the ombudsman’s office of the Zurich canton.
The ombudsman’s office told her that the rate for gender changes had been deliberately set very low.
According to the Swiss officials, a name change alone was much more expensive because it was only admissible if there were “respectable reasons” for it, as the canton of Zurich said on its website.
These reasons needed to be thoroughly investigated by public administrators, which could entail phone counselling, the reading of files, legal hearings, interviews with the applicant and the assessment of medical certificates.
All that was judged to take on average four hours of public servants’ time with one hour valued at 150 francs (€160).
In 2024, only 812 out of 1214 requests for name changes received a green light. Almost a third of applications were thrown out or withdrawn for lack of prospective success.
The change of name and gender together, though, is a much less complicated procedure.
No medical certificates needed to be presented, no counselling was deemed necessary, as it was officially regarded seen sufficient enough to simply declare one’s wish to change one’s gender and name.
The civil register has to follow an applicant’s desire for such without any investigation. Consequently, the combined name and gender change only takes half an hour, costing 75 francs.
The ombudsman’s office reportedly told the teenager’s mother it could not do anything about the stark difference in rates, saying the cheapness and simplicity of the gender/name change combination was “motivated by federal politics”.
