Presidential adviser Jarosław Niewierowicz changed the spelling of his surname to Polish.

Jarosław Niewierowicz, chief advisor to the president of Lithuania- Gitanas Nausėda and head of the Environment and Infrastructure Group in the Chancellery of the president of the Republic of Lithuania, changed the spelling of his name from Jaroslav Neverovicius to Jarosław Niewierowicz.

Currently, the Polish name and surname of the advisor to the Lithuanian head of state are provided on the website of the Office of the President. The head of the Environment and Infrastructure Group in the president’s Chancellery did not specify when he changed the spelling, citing the security of personal data.

„ I did not change my surname, it stayed the same. I am a Pole from Lithuania and my surname is Polish, as soon as I had the opportunity, I tried to spell it correctly finally” said J. Niewierowicz on  Tuesday.

After several decades of debates, the law adopted by the Sejm last year, which came into force on the 1^st of May 2022, provides that the name and surname of a Lithuanian citizen in personal documents may in some cases be written in the Latin alphabet without diacritical marks. Such spelling is possible if the citizen chooses a non-Lithuanian surname of the spouse and also if the surname of his or her parents or one of the parents is written in a non-Lithuanian font in the source of the document.

Representatives of national minorities must declare their nationality in order to change their surname.