Italy is, by many metrics, one of the greatest countries in the world: They have arguably the best cuisine on the planet, the greatest architecture, the richest hospitality... there's a lot to love about Italy.

Their government, however, is not one of those things:

Italy's top court ruled on Wednesday that children born in the country will be given their mother's and father's surnames at birth, declaring the automatic practice of only giving children their father's surname "constitutionally illegitimate."

Parents will be able to choose the order of surnames or decide to use only one, a statement on the ruling from Italy's Constitutional Court read, citing principles of equality and the children's interest. Except in certain circumstances, Italian families have been unable to give their children their mother's surname alone.

I just...

I mean, look, if it is indeed true that "Italian families have been unable to give their children their mother's surname alone," that's lame. One can picture certain unfortunate circumstances where that might be proper or appropriate.

But obviously the right call isn't to mandate a system of automatic hyphenated surnames; it should be to let families make that decision on their own.

Presumably most families would probably choose the traditional patriarchal approach to naming, and that's fine. Some might choose to give the baby the mother's name. Others may choose double names. It should be up to each family, in other words.

Everybody needs a name. No reason to let the government decide what that is.

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