Costa Rica bill seeks parental choice in children's surname order

A new legislative bill, expediente 25.714, has been presented in the Legislative Assembly to allow parents to choose the order of their children's surnames on an equal basis. Proposed by Frente Amplio deputy Antonio Trejos Mazariegos, the project aims to grant families the right to decide whether the mother's or father's surname comes first for minors.

The initiative seeks to address a legal gap following a Constitutional Court ruling (Sentence N.° 2024-1728) that declared the automatic imposition of the paternal surname unconstitutional due to its patriarchal roots. While that ruling applied to adults, it did not explicitly resolve the situation for minors. The proposal also includes provisions for cultural diversity, recognizing the matrilineal affiliation systems of the Bribri and Cabécar indigenous peoples.