Resumen de A New Personal Names Act in Sweden?
Since 1983, official Swedish personal names have been governed by the Personal Names Act of 24 June 1982. The current Act has now been in force for just over thirty years. The government agency responsible for personal names has come under pressure from two directions: on the one hand, it has been accused of being too tolerant and allowing too much, and on the other it has been criticised for preventing progress by being too restrictive. There is now a significant problem with the 1982 Act, namely that it is out of step with the present-day situation and current practice. In 2010 a committee of inquiry was set up by the Swedish Government to review the Personal Names Act, with terms of reference that stated that it was to look into ‘whether there is scope to take somewhat greater account of the interest of individuals in choosing their own names’. In May 2013 a report was published in which the committee proposed a wide range of changes. In this paper I shall present and comment on the most important innovations in the report.
