What’s in a name?

Deciding what to call your child can be a wonderful part of parenthood, and now Italian women are going to be given more say in the matter.

Judges in the country have ended the practice of automatically giving babies their father’s surname, declaring it ‘discriminatory’.

Newborns will instead have the family names of both parents on their birth certificate, unless the pair agree to use just one.

Italian women tend to keep their last name after marriage, meaning their children have traditionally had a different one.

Italy’s parliament need to pass a law to enact the change, but family minister Elena Bonetti said they were in support and it was a ‘fundamental step in achieving equal rights between the women and the men of our country.’