The family legislation proceeds from the requirement of family strengthening, building of family relations on the basis of mutual love and respect, the mutual assistance and responsibility of all the family members, inadmission of self-willed interference into the family’s issues, provision of free realization of family members’ rights, necessity of judicial protection of these rights.
The RA Family Code provides that the spouses by their will may choose the family name of one of the spouses as a common family name or keep the family name prior to marriage. The common family name may be the family name of one of the spouses or such a family name that simultaneously includes the family names of both spouses. The common family name cannot include more than 2 family names. The alternation of one of the spouse’s family name does not create the alternation of the other spouse’s family name. During divorce spouses may keep their common family name or recover their prior to marriage family name.
In case of recognition of the marriage invalid the decent spouse can keep the family name chosen during the state registration of the marriage.
A child’s family name is determined by the family name of the parents. If the parents bear different family names, with the parents’ consent the child is given the father’s or mother’s family name.
