Birth registration

You will be identified upon entering the state portal.

The register will inform you if you have entered the data accurately.

Upon registering a birth, an official shall enter the birth into the population register. You shall receive the birth certificate from the Tallinn Vital Statistics Department within two weeks after the birth entry has been made. Residents of Tallinn shall receive the children’s name certificates during a festive ceremony at Tallinn Town Hall. If you would like to participate in the event, please notify the person registering the birth. Participation in the event is free of charge. The one-time childbirth allowance of Tallinn can be applied for upon registering the birth at the Tallinn Vital Statistics Department or afterwards via the state portal or by submitting an application to the social welfare department of your city district government within six months after the child is born. To apply for the national parental benefit and childbirth allowance, please contact: Social Insurance Board, Endla 8, phone 16106 or submit the application via the state portal.

To attain the desired result, please follow the recommendations of the official.

Bring along your identity document.

In order to register a birth, you need to submit:

• an application for the registration of birth (Annex 1). ei avane!
• a certificate of a medical institution about the birth of your child, unless an electronic birth certificate exists in the population register;
• identity documents of parents (passport, ID-card);
• marriage certificate, if not entered in the population register

A foreign document (e.g. a marriage document) must be legalised or with a confirmed apostil, unless the international agreement states otherwise.

A document in a foreign language must be translated into Estonian, Russian or English, except when the document is in Russian or English. If the documents have been translated, the evidence shall be submitted with a translation confirmed by a notary, consular officer or sworn translator;

• If only one of the parents who are married to each other comes to register the birth of a child, he or she must bring along the written consent of the other parent concerning the name to be assigned.

Right of custody of the child.

Upon registration of birth, the data on the right of custody shall be entered into the population register. Parents who are married to each other have joint right of custody. Parents who are not married to each other shall choose whether the right of custody shall be given to one parent or both parents. Right of custody means the right and obligation of a parent to take care of their minor child and includes custody over person and custody over property. A parent who has the right of custody is the legal representative of a child. Custody over a person is the right and obligation of a caregiver to raise a child, exercise supervision over them, ascertain the whereabouts of the child and take care of the all-round well-being of the child. Custody over property includes the right and obligation to administer the property of the child.

Acknowledgement of paternity.

If the parents of the child are not married to each other, the application for the acknowledgement of paternity shall be submitted by appearing in person or in a notarised form (Annex 1). Acknowledgement of paternity shall be in accordance to the Family Law Act. Both parents shall be present upon registration together with the acknowledgement of paternity.

An application for the acknowledgement of paternity may be submitted upon registration of the birth of a child or after that. In exceptional cases, where submission of an application for the acknowledgement of paternity may prove impossible or difficult after the birth of a child, it may be done also during the pregnancy of the woman.

If paternity is acknowledged upon registration of birth, the respective part on the application for the registration of birth shall be filled in. If paternity is acknowledged after the registration of birth, the application for the acknowledgement of paternity is filled in after the registration of birth (Annex 2).

Naming a child.

A given name may consist upon assigning of not more than three names written as separate words or two names linked by a hyphen. A given name shall be in conformity with good morals and correspond to the gender of the person. A given name may not contain numbers or non-alphabetical signs and together with the surname may not form a name of a well-known figure. An exception can be made, if, due to the citizenship, family relations, national identity or other circumstances, a child or the child’s parents have a personal connection to the foreign-language name tradition and the name applied for complies therewith.

The spelling of an Estonian given name shall be in accordance with the rules of orthography of the Estonian language. The pronunciation and spelling of an Estonian given name are the same and the name does not contain any foreign letters (such as c, č, q, w, x, y), foreign word letters (f, š, z, ž), foreign language letter combinations (such as th, sh) and the name does not start with letters g, b, d. A non-Estonian given name shall be in accordance with the rules of orthography of the relevant language and must be in use in another state as a given name.

The assigned surname may be the joint surname of both parents or the family name of the single parent. If the parents have different surnames, the child shall be assigned the surname of one of the parents. Multiples shall be assigned the same surname. A surname consisting of two names shall not be assigned to a child as a surname. As an exception, a child may be assigned a surname consisting of two names of the parents, if the parent has obtained it by birth, both parents or the single parent have two names or if a sister or brother of a child has a surname consisting of two names which coincides with the surname of a parent consisting of two names.

Upon registering a birth, an official shall enter the birth into the population register and shall issue a birth certificate. The one-time childbirth allowance of Tallinn can be applied for upon registering the birth at the Tallinn Vital Statistics Department or afterwards via the state portal or by submitting an application to the social welfare department of your city district government within six months after the child is born. To apply for the national parental benefit and childbirth allowance, please contact: Social Insurance Board, Endla 8, phone 16106 or submit the application via the state portal.

To reach the desired result, please follow our recommendations.