The Power of a Traditional Name
For Indigenous people, traditional names are far more than a label – they are a living connection to identity, ancestry, land and responsibility. They are deeply sacred cultural inheritances. A traditional name often carries the history of one’s family line, the memory of many ancestors, and the spirit of a place. Names hold stories. They may reference an historical event, a natural force, a relationship with an other-than-human life force, or a responsibility to place. When someone receives their traditional name, they are not simply being identified – they are being entrusted with the legacy and responsibilities connected to that name.
Suppression of Traditional Names
Colonial legislation and policies, including the residential school system, often suppressed or replaced traditional names with European ones. Colonial naming was legally mandated, including through the Gradual Civilization Act (1857), Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869), and the Indian Act (1876). These laws required Indigenous people—especially men seeking enfranchisement—to adopt English surnames and Christian first names. During the 1800s, Indian agents typically gave men Christian first names and non-Indigenous last names. Women were also given Christian first names and were assigned the surnames of either their fathers or husbands. The Indian agents often used the same biblical names throughout multiple communities, which explains the frequency of unrelated Indigenous families that share the same last names.
Indigenous children who were forced to attend residential school were routinely stripped of their traditional names and assigned English or biblical names, or sometimes numbers, without consent or even an explanation. This was done to make the children easier for staff to control and record, to suppress Indigenous language and worldviews embedded in traditional names, and to sever the children’s connections to their families, community and culture.[1]
This forced renaming has caused many long-term harms, including loss of cultural continuity, disrupted family and community ties, Identity fragmentation and intergenerational trauma. These harms persist today, particularly for Survivors and descendants seeking to reclaim traditional names without access to language or cultural knowledge that was taken from them.
Steps Toward Recognition and Reconciliation
TRC Call to Action 17
Call to Action 17 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission states:
We call upon all levels of government to enable residential school Survivors and their families to reclaim names changed by the residential school system by waiving administrative costs for a period of five years for the name-change process and the revision of official identity documents, such as birth certificates, passports, driver’s licenses, health cards, status cards, and social insurance numbers.
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, SBC 2019, c 44 (“DRIPA”)
Provinces have taken up Call to Action 17 to varying degrees. In this post I focus on British Columbia.
DRIPA commits the province to aligning laws and services with UNDRIP, including rights to language, culture, and identity. Action 3.15 of BC’s Declaration Act Action Plan commits the Province to adopt an inclusive digital font that allows for Indigenous languages to be included in communication, signage, services and official records.[2] BC has made some progress on Action 3.15 by working with FirstVoices (an initiative of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council) to launch the BC Sans Typeface, which supports the digital rendering of all characters used in the 34 Indigenous languages in BC.[3]
Legal Battles over Traditional Names
Despite BC’s overarching commitments and incremental steps to implementing UNDRIP and Call to Action 17, Indigenous people in British Columbia continue to face legal and administrative barriers when attempting to reclaim traditional names.
When Crystal Smith and her partner Raymond Shaw, the parents of λugʷaləs K’ala’ask Shaw (whose name is Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and uses phonetic symbols created by Kwak̓wala language keepers) registered their son’s birth, the Vital Statistics agency refused to accept the name. The agency would only accept names composed of Latin alphabetic letters, apostrophes, hyphens, periods and French accents. In 2022, the parents filed a challenge with the B.C. Supreme Court arguing that the Vital Statistics naming standards violate their constitutional rights.[4] Vital Statistics ultimately issued the parents a birth certificate which accurately reflects the proper spelling of the child’s name.
In BAYT-X̱ TSIHATSI v. BC Ministry of Health (Vital Statistics Agency), 2026 BCHRT 20, a Gitxsan man sought to legally reclaim his traditional name, but the Agency denied his application due to legislative restrictions requiring more than one name and technical limitations with Indigenous orthographic characters. While the BC Human Rights Tribunal dismissed the legislative aspect, it allowed the complaint regarding the technological barrier to proceed, recognizing that it had the potential to cause cultural and emotional harm. The Tribunal grounded its approach in Article 13 of UNDRIP and underscored the importance of Indigenous name reclamation in reconciliation, establishing that administrative and technological refusals can be challenged under the Human Rights Code even if the statute itself remains unchanged.
Name Reclamation Process (BC and Federal)
Indigenous peoples in Canada now have options available to them to reclaim their Indigenous names in official documents.
In British Columbia, residential school Survivors, their family members, and individuals impacted by the Sixties Scoop are eligible for a fee-waived name reclamation. Applicants must submit a statutory declaration confirming eligibility. Fees that may be waived include the application fee, witnessing fees and British Columbia birth or marriage certificate replacement fees after the applicant’s legal name has been updated.[5]
As part of implementing Action 3.15 of the Action Plan, the Vital Statistics Agency is already processing legal name changes using Indigenous language characters. However, full digital font integration across all government systems is still ongoing, and those who have reclaimed their traditional names could experience delays or challenges when accessing services, as agencies have varying requirements for names with Indigenous language characters. Likely, there will be an extended transition period before names can be consistently recognized and integrated with associated data to provide services. Additionally, there remains a requirement to have a first name and a surname; mononyms are not allowed.[6]
After completing a provincial name change, Indigenous people can update federal identity documents through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). IRCC has launched a process for Indigenous peoples, residential school Survivors and their families to reclaim their Indigenous names on replacement passports, travel documents, citizenship certificates and permanent resident cards free of charge until May 30, 2026.
However, as of April 7, 2026, names can only be written in letters from the Roman alphabet and some accented letters.[7] This means that names which may be reclaimed in British Columbia may be unable to yet be changed in federal official documentation.
Challenges, Cautions, and Optimism
Despite recent reforms, there remain issues with fragmentation between federal, provincial and private systems. There is inconsistent recognition of Indigenous names across banks, schools and professional regulators, and prospective applicants should be aware of this. Further, many of the reforms are policy based and not legislative, resulting in potential for arbitrary discretionary decisions which can deeply impact Indigenous people.
While technical and administrative issues may persist in the coming years, the movement towards name reclamation is towards positive change. Reclaiming and using traditional names today is an act of cultural renewal and resilience. It restores language, reconnects people to their families and territories, and affirms identity after generations of attempted erasure. For Indigenous people, a traditional name can be a powerful reminder that they are part of something much larger than themselves: a lineage spanning back thousands of years, and forward into future generations.
If you’d like to discuss the possibility of reclaiming your traditional name in official provincial and federal identification and documentation, one of our lawyers would be pleased to assist you.
[1] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, pp. 192-193, 205.
[2] Province of British Columbia, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan 2022-2027, p. 20, online: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/government/ministries-organizations/ministries/indigenous-relations-reconciliation/declaration_act_action_plan.pdf
[3] Province of British Columbia, BC Sans Typeface, March 4, 2026, online: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/services-for-government/policies-procedures/bc-visual-identity/bc-sans
[4] Shaw v Vital Statistics Agency of British Columbia, Supreme Court of British Columbia, Vancouver Registry, No. VLC-S-S-228102, 5 October 2022.
[5] Fingerprinting fees cannot be waived by the Vital Statistics Agency as these are charged by an external organization.
[6] https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/legal-changes-of-name/reclamation-indigenous-names
[7] https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/change-name.html#reclaiming-indigenous