You are a proud Paraguayan resident with origins abroad. You have felt at home in the country for many years. And for a while now you have been thinking about changing your name and starting a new life in Paraguay, but you do not know where to start. So what does it actually take to change your name in Paraguay? Find our how Paraguay’s name change laws work in this article.
Three different types of name changes
First of all, there are different types of name changes. For instance, we have surname removal, in case you have multiple surnames which is quite common in Latin America. Furthermore, we have surname changing, i.e. replacing a surname with another. Finally, there are also first name changes, which are the most difficult to do.
What Paraguay’s name change laws say
The Paraguayan Civil Code (Código Civil Paraguayo), Article 43, states: “Every person has the right to a first and last name, which must be registered in the Civil Registry. Only a judge may authorise, for just cause, changes or additions to a first and last name.” In layman terms this means, your reason for changing, altering or removing your name must go beyond personal preference. Examples of just causes are for example adoption, family estrangement, and also child abandonment.
In January 2026, Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Defence (Ministerio de la Defensa Pública) successfully defended a young adult’s wish to remove his paternal surname after finding that the father had abandoned him from an early age. According to an article published by the Ministry of Public Defence on this story, evidence provided included photographs where the father was absent, payment receipts that mother funded schooling alone as well as criminal records which is quite typical in Paraguay.
Marriage misconceptions
A common misconception among Paraguayan tax residents from abroad and foreigners in general is that marriage will change or result in an additional surname, but this has not been the case since 1992. This is according to the partial reform of the civil code (De la reforma código civil), law 1/92, article 10, which states “A married woman may use her husband’s surname after her own, but this does not imply a change of her name, which remains the one recorded in her Civil Registry certificate.”
In other words, the use of a spousal surname is solely customary and optional, but does not reflect any changes in the system, i.e. the cedula.
What to do as Paraguayan resident from abroad
Unless you have grown up in Paraguay and have justified cause to change your name, (in which case you should go to court), the best advice for most Paraguayan residents from abroad is focus on name change abroad first and then providing the National Directorate of Migration (Dirección Nacional de Migraciones) with renewed documents.
Many European countries support name changes without just cause, where personal reasons are often enough. Paraguay will not be able to help you change your surname unless you have grown up in the country in which case you could argue that you have just caused to change your name in court.
In order to change your name in Paraguay, you need:
- A passport reflecting your new name,
- A name change certificate (apostiled),
- Criminal records from your country of residence (apostiled if the records are not Paragauyan).
Find more Paraguay 101 Guides on The Asunción Times.
