One nation is considering automatically giving babies their mum's surname instead of dad's, and it's sparked plenty of debate

Debate has erupted after an Italian politician proposed a new law which would see babies automatically inherit their mother's surnames at birth.

Dario Franceschini suggested the new law in place of the existing practice of automatically assigning children their father's surname, which he described as a "centuries-old injustice".

The former culture minister from the centre-left Democratic party made the proposal on the back of a 2022 ruling by Italy's constitutional court, which defined the existing father-focused practice as "discriminatory and harmful to the identity of the child".

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That ruling suggested Italian children be given the surnames of both parents (unless the parents agreed on just one), and any disagreements could be settled by a judge.

But Franceschini, who predicted that set-up would create "endless problems", wants to see mothers' surnames take pride of place.

"It is a simple thing and also compensation for a centuries-old injustice that has had not only a symbolic value, but has been a cultural and social source of gender inequality," he said, via The Guardian.

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The surnames that are second life as first names for boys and girls

The tradition of assigning children their father's surname is common around the world and dates back hundreds of years.

Franceschini's proposal, which he plans to present to Italy's right-wing coalition government in the coming days, sparked heated debate among Italian politicians this week.

Federico Mollicone, a member of Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, called the proposal a shift "from patriarchy to matriarchy".

Matteo Salvini, a far-right politician, accused Franceschini of trying to "wipe these fathers off the face of the earth" with the bill.

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In Australia, newborns traditionally take their father's surname but there is no legislation preventing parents from giving their child the mother's surname or a hyphenated combination of both last names.

There are some societies around the name where matronymic surnames (family names inherited from the mother) are common, but they're relatively rare.

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