Last week, the Czech Republic’s lower house of Parliament voted 91 to 33 in favor of a proposal to allow women to use the masculine form of their surname, forgoing the feminine “ova.” Former Justice Minister Helena Valkova said the effort aimed to end an “unjustified unequal position.” 

The proposal, headed to the Senate, has faced opposition previously from traditionalists. Still, in promoting a single standard, it reflects a global trend to be more equitable by freeing individuals from gender assumptions or barriers.  

Some countries tread lightly with naming – including the United States, where legal restrictions may focus on things like obscenities or symbols. Others have been more rigid. In 2019, Iceland overrode a law preventing men and women from using the same first names, and moved to allow gender-neutral surnames in specific cases – turning Jónsdóttir (Jon’s daughter) to Jónsbur (Jon’s child), for example. The same year, Colombia’s Constitutional Court asked Congress to give parents greater freedoms, and ruled that certain conventions violated principles of equality. A decade ago, Spain ended a father’s right to put his surname ahead of his wife’s in a child’s name.

To some, it’s simply allowing language to adapt, as it long has. “If linguistic conventions force you to identify yourself in ways that don’t make sense to you, then you will probably seek to challenge those,” says linguistics professor David Danaher. The Czech proposal is “a reflection of a long-term trend in challenging linguistic norms that fail to do justice … to how we understand ourselves.”