Italian babies will no longer be forced to take their father’s surname after a ruling yesterday by the nation’s highest court.

In Italy, children automatically inherit their father’s family name at birth unless they are born out of wedlock or the father’s identity is unknown.

In a landmark judgment the Constitutional Court deemed this ‘discriminatory and harmful to the identity’ of a child.

‘In the principle of equality and in the interest of the child, both parents must be able to share the choice on the child’s surname’, the court stated.

The case was prompted by a couple who have two children born out of wedlock to the mother’s previous partner.

Her children were given their mother’s surname, but when the couple had a third child they were unable to give it the same family name as the other two.

The unnamed couple opened a lawsuit in 2020, ending up at Italy’s supreme court.

Family minister Elena Bonetti responded to the ruling in a Facebook post: ‘The time has come for a change.

‘I guarantee all the support of the government to the parliamentary process in taking another fundamental step to achieve equality between women and men in our country.’

In an interview the minister added: ‘Finally the Constitution states that in family law, there is no prevalence of the masculine over the feminine.

‘The surname is part of the identity and personal history. [This] overcomes the discrimination against women and children.’

Asked whether the new plan could lead to a ‘multiplication of surnames’, Ms Bonetti said it would be down to the coming legislation to decide a solution.

Under the new plan, a baby would take on a four-barreled surname made up of both their parents’ double-barreled surnames.

One option, the minister said, could be cancelling one of the surnames ‘with the agreement of both parents’.