(1) Where a person under an applicable foreign law has obtained a name and the name is henceforth governed by German law, the person may, by a declaration given before the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths,
1. determine a first and a family name from out of the name
2. choose a first or a family name where such name does not exist
3. give up components of the name that German law does not provide for
4. adopt the original version of a name that has been modified according to the sex or the family relationship
5. accept a German version of his or her first or his or her family name; where such a version of his or her first name does not exist, he or she can accept new first names.
Where the name is a marital name or a life-partnership name, during the subsistence of the marriage or of the life partnership, only both spouses or life partners may give the declaration.
(2) Paragraph 1 is applicable mutatis mutandis as to the formation of a name under German law, if it is derived from a name which has been obtained under an applicable foreign law.
(3) § 1617c of the Civil Code shall apply mutatis mutandis.
(4) The declarations made under Paragraphs 1 and 2 need to be publicly authenticated or certified, unless they have been made before a German Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths.