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Government

The Balcão dos Registos counter at the Campus de Justiça in Lisbon, with a row of people waiting on chairs to the left and staff serving behind the curved reception desk on the right.

Changing Your Name in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Six-Word Limit, the 200 Euro Process, the One Official in Lisbon Who Decides, and the Seven Changes That Need No Permission at All

Portugal lets you give a newborn six words of name and then makes an adult apply to the conservador dos Registos Centrais to alter one letter of it. What article 104 exempts, what marriage and divorce do to surnames, the free route under Lei 38/2018, and why foreign residents cannot use any of it.
The Portugal Brief