Over the first nine months of the year, a record 6 percent of newborn babies in Taiwan were given their mother’s maiden name, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday
Of the 81,381 babies born in Taiwan during that period, 4,884 babies, or about 6 percent, were given their mother’s maiden name, up from 5.2 percent during the same period in 2020, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, 93.9 percent of babies took their father’s surname, while fewer than 0.1 percent were given an indigenous name, ministry data showed.
Photo: Lee Wen-hsin, Taipei Times
Taitung and Hualien had the highest number of babies who took their mother’s maiden name, at 16.8 percent and 16.5 percent respectively, followed by Pingtung (9 percent), Nantou (7.4) percent and Keelung (7.3 percent), the ministry said.
Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology adjunct research fellow Yang Wen-shan (楊文山) said the high numbers in Taitung and Hualien were due to their large indigenous populations, which tend to be more matriarchal.
As of the end of September, 79,175 babies, or 97.3 percent of the total, were given surnames decided by both parents, the ministry said.
Of those babies, 96.5 percent took their father’s surname, while 3.4 percent took their mother’s, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, of the 2,037 babies, or 2.5 percent of the total, whose surname was chosen by one parent, 99.1 percent took their mother’s surname, while 0.8 percent took their father’s, the data showed.
Under Article 1059 of the Civil Code, mothers and fathers are required to jointly decide whose surname their child will take before the child is registered at a Household Registration Office.
If the parents cannot reach an agreement, the child’s surname is determined by drawing lots at the registration office, the article states.
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