Tell me your surname and I'll tell you where you're from: focus on the negative implications of domestic surname policies on minors with dual citizenship

Rules on surnames are governed by the private law of the State where the child is born, which may not comply with the law of the country the child is citizen of. In fact, surnames' policies differ from State to State: whereas certain States provide all children with double surnames, combining together the surname of the mother and that of the father, other countries preserve a strictly patriarcal approach to the transmission of the surname, and yet other ones assign the newborn the surname of the parent recognising the baby at first, regardless of gender issues. The chasm has grown to the point where children were required to use a surname in the country of birth and a different one in that of citizenship. This paper compares rules on surnames, detecting concrete and actual mismatches among the various bureaucratic procedures to obtain legal accreditation of a foreign surname (e.g. in case of dual nationality), in order to investigate into the state of the art and to recommend possible actions.