South Africa’s Constitutional Court has delivered a landmark ruling granting men the right to adopt their wives’ surnames after marriage, declaring that any law preventing the practice amounted to unfair gender discrimination.
The ruling, issued on Thursday, September 11, 2025, followed two cases: one from a couple who wished to honour the woman’s late parents, and another from a woman seeking to preserve her family’s surname as an only child.
The court found the legal prohibition served “no legitimate government purpose” and suspended the law, directing parliament to amend the legislation. It noted that while men were directly denied the right, the deeper impact fell on women, as the law reinforced “patriarchal gender norms” that tied women’s identities to their husbands.
Previously, men were required to apply to the Home Affairs Department for a surname change, a process that was not automatically granted. By contrast, women were free to assume their husbands’ surnames upon marriage.
The ruling aligns South Africa with practices already recognised in parts of Europe and some US states, where men can adopt their wives’ surnames as a matter of choice.
