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What? Do you have to go to a judge if you want to change your name in general, or is there a special law that say that if you change your name to something differently gendered you need a judge?

I have a trans friend and the biggest name related problem E. had was getting a new user account at work (as far as I know anyway).

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Changing your name in general is not easy in Germany. There is a short list of allowed reasons for doing so, each with its own process. Reasons would be things like: Marriage, gender change (in Germany at least one for your first names needs to indicate your gender), unfortunate or funny name, or at naturalization to make your name more German-sounding.

Outside of that it's almost impossible to change your name.

However, getting a stage name or artist pseudonym recognized is relatively easy. (But probably wouldn't help a transgender person feel better.)

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