>>>Today I visited the website of Christof Lange, oh sorry, I mean Christof Wollenhaupt. Until today I thought it were two different persons, but it appears that he married two years ago and has changed his last name.
>>>
>>>What puzzles me is that no one here has wondered how this is possible. As far as I'm aware of, there's no law that allows a man to change his last name when he gets married.
>>>
>>>Christof, are you reading along?
>>
>>From what I've heard, this is possible in that country.
>
>Michel is right, it has been possible in Germany for many years. In the age of EU's Nondiscrimination policy this is now / will soon be possible in all EU member countries.

Today I have done some research, and we (colleagues) had a lot of debate and fun about this and related topics here. The Dutch Wikipedia site (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlands_namenrecht) suggests that in the Netherlans too a man has the right to accept the last name of the woman when they marry. But a colleague just told me that a friend of him didn't fully succeed when he married a Brazilian woman. Although he calls himself by her last name, his passport still has his original name because the government doesn't allow him to change his last name. So, who's right? Wikipedia or my colleague? The internet or the personal contact?

What I also noticed is that children can ask for a change of the name, e.g. from father's to mother's, or vice versa of course.

And then there is the possibility of combinations: man-woman, woman-man.

And the parents have the right to give the children the name of the mother. This only applies to the first born. All next children must be given the same last name.

How's that all in your countries?