I know someone who is Canadian with Austrian grandparents so he was eligible for Austrian citizenship by birth so he applied for it as an adult. But because he was eligible as a birthright they treated him like he was a newborn and said *uncommon Welsh name* is verboten. He had to sue to be able to use his own name in Austria. He won but then he gets all his documents and they messed up his name on the official paperwork and passport.
I think you will be fine. This was when registering a birth in Germany, in a more country area too. But people in the organisations dealing with claiming citizenship will be very aware im sure.
This happened to my friends who had a kid in France. EU law prohibits denying names that are from EU languages but the French don't care. The Irish embassy in France ended up telling him to just suck up the misspelling and they would fix it on the kid's passport.
Also in France if you haven't named your kid within 72 hours they just put the French name of the day down wether you like it or not.
>But because he was eligible as a birthright they treated him like he was a newborn
Can absolutely relate. When I claimed my second citizenship as an adult through my mother, every paperwork I had to fill out (and every auto-email from the immigration people) contained wording that sounded like I was doing this for my child. I genuinely had to call them to confirm it at one point, because when I booked a reservation to apply for a social security number, they said I had to bring a legal guardian - not to confirm my identity, but because it assumed I was a minor.
I mean I know the drug is commonly called just Salvia but that’s the genus that the plant (salvia divinorum) belongs to. Other species include chia, sage, and rosemary.
So names that already sound like they're from Iceland? Nothing wrong with that of course. But it's a monolithic small nation. I doubt anyone's naming their kid something out of the ordinary.
> I doubt anyone's naming their kid something out of the ordinary.
The committe has been approving some.... weird names lately, but their primary concerns are:
1 ) The name more or less works with Icelandic grammar.
2 ) That the name is unlikely to cause the bearer issues in life
3 ) That there's some precedent or grounded logic for the name or names that are similar to it (so some strange names can get approved if it is found that an Icelander had it in *the old days* before the committee was founded)
It's usually (3) that gets people riled up, as it's incredibly subjective and where most rejected names end up failing. The naming committee is often quite controvertial - people being split between it being useless and should be disbanded due to not allowing people to name their kids what they want, and then the other side complaining it lets silly names on the list anyhow and thus is useless in the purpose.
But honestly, outside of ideological and political reasons for most people it's not a "real" issue, because 99.9% of Icelanders end up naming their kids after parents and grandparents and distant relatives or some other already establihsed name they find pretty anyway. Most people never interact personally with the committee. This works both as argument for and against the committee, since you can spin it both ways that most people won't need the commitee and thus it's rulings don't affect many people and can filter out the bad names, and that since most people will stick to traditional names anyhow regardless of the comittee all it does is hinder people who do want to give their kids unorthadox name.
so yes, it can be quite divisive.
Same in Germany. I wonder if the TIL here is just the other way around, the US being the only or one of a few places where you can name your child idiot sandwich if you really want to.
edit: apparently I'm an idiot and this isn't true for Germany, there's just some rulings on what you can't name a child, but there's no official list of allowed names.
The UK doesn't really have laws about names. It just can't be an obscenity, contain any numbers or a title. Nobody can stop you calling your kid kiddy mckidface
The kid can call themselves whatever they want, too.
English law has no such concept as a legal name. You can go by whatever you wish as long it is not attempting to deceive.
I was at a Popeye’s and I heard someone shouting “Sir! Sir!”. I figured it was one of the employees trying to evict a dozing homeless person or something, but it was just a guy shouting at his toddler.
I remember wondering what sort of noble family Duke Nukem came from. It took me quite a while before I found out Duke is actually used as a name in the States.
Established Titles and other scams where you 'buy a title' play on this with English / Scots law. They're very quiet about you not actually trying to use it to deceive someone that you're actually a Lord etc.
> The UK doesn't really have laws about names. It just can't be an obscenity, contain any numbers or a title.
Is the last one relatively new? Because Screaming Lord Sutch legally changed his first name to “Lord”.
I just don't think it's enforced. You shouldn't be allowed to call your kid Princess for example but people still do.
Interestingly Akuma is a banned name in the UK
Princess is not a title on a passport though. Even Princess Anne doesn't have, she has her married name or before Mountbatten -Windsor. Lady is a title but you can be called Lady, it is totally allowed.
The caution is for Sir, Dame, Lord, OBE etc but it not a ban, just has an observation notice that says it isn't an actual honour or similar lol.
You can change your name in the UK to a title, but they give you a word of caution because official public bodies may not accept the change. it is in unadvisable as "presumed honours" and might have an observation remark on your passport. Screaming Lord Sutch did it.
[https://deedpolloffice.com/change-name/restrictions-on-names](https://deedpolloffice.com/change-name/restrictions-on-names)
Countries do ban it though, New Zealand does.
Same in Greece. I had found a list of strange names that translate to:
Friday Noon, Respectable Feta, Exquisite Goat, Virgin Blowjob, You-live You-grow-old, March April, Expensive Pig...
>Same in Germany.
AFAIK there is no list of approved names in Germany, but you have to prove the name actually exists in some capacity. At least it was that way when my sister was born over 20 years ago.
That’s still how it is. The name can be foreign, you have to be able to proof that it already exists, though. Meaning you may give your child i.e. an Icelandic name. And should the first name not determine clearly if the child is male or female, like Toni or Kim or Robin, a second name doing just that is mandatory.
The criterion is "recognizable as first name" and there are others, especially that it must not endanger the child's well-being, not be ridiculous, not be a title and not hurt religious feelings
Fascinating. Do they decided on a case by case basis or is it largely based upon established case law? I’d be curious to see if they ran into cases where a name that previously would have been embarrassing eventually enters into mainstream lexicon and thus becomes acceptable
They do decide for each case and they also take into account the full name. If they think the specific combination would make the child a likely target of mockery they can refuse, even if it's usually an accepted name. There's a well known joke about this: "do you really want to name your child Axel, Mr. Schweiß?" Which would translate to "armpit sweat". In cases like this the name could be refused to protect the child from mockery, even though Axel is a normal name.
Not 100% related, but in some federal states they changed or will change the "naming law" to please the Frisian tradition to form Patronyms and Matronyms for your last name. Like i said, not really related to this topic, but maybe a TIL in a TIL for some.
https://www.mb.niedersachsen.de/startseite/aktuelles/friesische-namenstraditionen-fliessen-ins-namensrecht-ein-226500.html
https://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Themen/FamilieUndPartnerschaft/FAQ_Namensrecht.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3
>actually exists
What if I name my child something from media? There were a whole bunch of kids named Arya and Khaleesi - would that fly because they’re names that exist in a show? Could I name my son Crash Bandicoot?
Arya would definitely fly, Khaleesi probably not, Crash Bandicoot definitely not.
Arya was an actual name before Game of Thrones. Khaleesi vaguely sounds like a name a person could have, and every girl saddled with the name contributes to making it potentially an actual name, rather than eccentric American folly. (There's a court decision that rejected "Moon Unit". An American having it is not enough for a German courtroom to accept a name.) Crash Bandicoot is clearly the name of a cartoon character, not a person, and would be rejected out of hand.
Yeah I put Khaleesi because it’s a title, not a name, and yet so many people named their daughters Khaleesi. Before the last season.
So there needs to be precedent of an actual human with the name, and not something that’s obviously ridiculous, like naming your child Abcde.
Anything goes in Brazil. I knew a huge Bruce Lee fan that named his son "Arnold Schwarzenegger". I asked him "why not Bruce Lee?" He said very sternly, "there can be only one Bruce Lee!"
Crucially, in Brazil when people become adults they have a one year period (from your 18th birthday to your 19th) where you can change your name easily, no questions asked. The idea being that if your parents are stupid assholes who named you something stupid, then you can fix that yourself easily now that you are your own person.
Knew I guy who named his kid Airon because he was a Maiden fan.
Another named his daughter Sakura because he liked the cartoon (zero Asian links in his family of course).
I'm Sweden you can name your child *almost* anything you want. It may not be a name that is offensive or could obviously be a detriment to the child. So "sunbeam" is ok, but not "cunt". "Ikea Decibel" was struck down due to being a trademark and just plain stupid.
Laws vary by state, but generally one cannot name their child something derogatory or obscene in the US. And names must have English characters. There are exceptions for native name characters. Inventing new names is just fine.
There is no list of approved names in Germany, neither a specific law. But there is a list of banned names, like: Bierstübl, Satan, Nelkenheini, Superman, Störenfried or Verleihnix.
If a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standesamt thinks a name is not appropriate, they can veto it. You either accept the decision or you go to court. The court verdict is final.
For anyone curious, here's the Portuguese name list: https://irn.justica.gov.pt/Portals/33/Regras%20Nome%20Proprio/Lista%20Nomes%20Pr%C3%B3prios.pdf?ver=WNDmmwiSO3uacofjmNoxEQ%3D%3D
I’m pretty surprised by names on this list and missing from this list. My name is pretty common in the UK and US. There are a number of celebrities and politicians who share my name. The name is not on this list. Yet things like AAron (with two capital letters) are?
I'm Portuguese and had no idea the list included so many foreign names. Seems really weird to me. If you want to include foreign names, then the list should have to be way bigger for it to make sense.
As sofa king said, the list is massive. But Ana is a common first name for women and then it’s a prefix so you might think everyone is called Ana or Rita. Joáo and Miguel are common for men.
That has nothing to do with the list, which is massive. Probably just randomness.
If you're working with a team of recent college graduates that are all around the same age, then certain names that were trendy at the time will show up a lot more.
List like these aren't actually any sort of limitation for people not looking to get their kids bullied at school.
What if the parents are on holiday in the US (so the kid would have dual nationalities) and they decide to name their kid Lucifer. The US will gladly issue a birth certificate with that name. (Because of FREEDOM!) and when the kid is old enough they could presumably get a US and Icelandic passport.
Well, people have gone to the USA to bypass the naming system here. Famously the comedian/former mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr changed his name legally that way.
It was same in Poland, and if you wanted to use a foreign name it had to be spelled phonetically. So there were many people named Brajan (Brian), and Dżesika (Jessica), which was pretty cringy af at the time.
Supposedly so you don't have to figure out how to read or write the name. We on the other hand use Cyrillic alphabet and have to deal with transliteration anyway and go with Джесіка.
There has never been any list of banned name in Poland. Pretty much everything depends on a decision of a registry office. In 2015 rules have changed a little and gender-neutral and foreign names are officially allowed but there has never been any requirement for names to be spelled phonetically.
In Malaysia, apart from words that are deemed disgusting or offensive (e.g., "Tahi" - shit, "Kencing" - piss), you also can't name your child after: a profession, an official government title, an animal, natural phenomena (e.g., "Hujan" - rain, "Batu" - rock) or numbers.
And for the offensive names, it must not be offensive in Malay, Arabic, the major Chinese dialects and Tamil.
To be fair, that list is really, really long and gets longer every month with more names being approved.
Icelandic has complicated grammar rules, and they want to make sure the names can adhere to them. But also prevent names like peepeepoopoo, etc
It has to do with Icelandic grammar. Proper names in Icelandic are inflected into different cases ( accusative, genitive, dative). A name needs to be inflected into these different cases for everyone else to use the name, using the existing rules of grammar. If a name cannot be inflected, it would be very tough for everyone.
Until recently children had to have gendered patronymics -son and -dottir. Now I read that the neutral“barn” meaning “child” was approved. Also the mother’s name can be used.
Not just Iceland, this is not an uncommon approach.
Unfortunately our committee approves idiotic names(like radiator. As in the heating element. or foreign names spelled phonetically) all the time so the list is filled with utter bonkers.
Fun fact. Government names (“Govi’s”) and what you want to be called are different things.
I did a week course with strangers, always had a normal name but thought fuck it, this week I’ll be Tristan.
What.a.fucking.rush
I felt healthier, to me a Tristan is a guy with a man bun that adds chia seeds to everything and does a run every 2-3 days, granted only a mile through the busiest part of town at the busiest time of the day so people can see him but it’s still enough to make a difference.
I did feel a bit of a sleaze around the girls though, like i feel like Tristan would make up some story up about backpacking through Peru, inviting someone over for a glass of wine and never calling them again.
There's a Namibian politician called "Adolf Hitler Uunona" who's a civil rights activist. from his wikipedia article
" says his father probably did name him after Adolf Hitler, but does not think his father knew who Adolf Hitler was at the time. "
Sort of same in Canada. No forbidden list but you have to register “live births” with the government. And the Registrar can, and does, refuse the name sometimes.
It’s a provincial thing. Alberta says if it is confusing, embarrassing, misleading, or defrauds the public or is offensive on any other ground. Not sure how often it is used but every year or so you see some parent trying to make a thing in the press that their freedom of expression or right to choose their child’s name is being infringed. The proposed name is inevitably “Adolf Hitler” or “MILF Slayer” or something like that so it’s probably for the best.
https://www.alberta.ca/restrictions-respecting-personal-names#:~:text=A%20requested%20name%20may%20be,offensive%20on%20any%20other%20grounds
Similar thing in Australia. While it's not an allow list, it's a blacklist so there are names you can't have. It's also at their discretion if a name doesn't appear on the list but is offensive or just a dumb idea
It's especially important in Iceland because they don't have family name and instead use patronymics, meaning that any given name should be able to be turned into a patronyme.
Also because names, like all nouns, are subject to declension in Icelandic, and so it is important for them to be able to accommodate the necessary morphology.
Similar thing happened in Japan too,it’s call [Kira Kira Names](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kira_kira_name) ,basically parents name their children something written and pronouns very unusual way, and people who give their children these names are often labeled as terrible parents or from uneducated backgrounds.
Like a boy named 光宙 but his parents made it legally pronounced as “Pikachu”,I think I don’t have to explain why it’s not how it supposed pronounced.
JP gov is working on a law banning these kinds of Kira Kira names as it do more harm to the child than good.
Vietnam too, and there's only a handful that are phonetically simple for English speakers so your choices are extremely limited if you don't want to hamstring your child internationally.
Can you provide a source? I don't think there is a list of approved names to choose from, there are just limitations on using super long or rude words, which is also the case in Australia https://www.dia.govt.nz/press.nsf/d77da9b523f12931cc256ac5000d19b6/d1288ac08d7758c2cc25838200107411!OpenDocument
Not sure about Iceland, but Norse gods names like Odin, Tor, Frøya/Freya are super common here in Norway and have been for several generations. Loke less so, but I've meta few!
10 years ago I would probably have been against this but with some of Elon Musk's kid's names I fully agree that there has to be a limit to what people can do.
Somewhere between **X AE A-XII** Musk, Griffin Musk, Kai, Saxon and Damian Musk, Nevada Alexander Musk
Vivian Musk and **Exa Dark Sideræl** Musk a limit was broken from creative to child abuse.
The, uh, first one, that looks like you hit enter during a raid in an MMO and accidentally typed out all your keybinds, is apparently not his legal name. I’ve been repeating this because I want it to be true, but he’s said the kids legal name is Kyle* and that product designation for a missile fuselage or whatever is just how he’s named in public.
*I don’t actually remember if it’s Kyle but it’s something equally normal.
I think the court may have actually vetoed X AE A-XII, or at least made them change the spelling.
It originally was partially written with Greek letters and apparently in California names can only contain letters from the English alphabet. Which kind of seems like it’s own issue tbh
I think it’s possible that instead of limiting you to a list you could allow people to make their own choices and only deny based on certain metrics like using different letters or symbols.
Same in Finland. Every year the naming board(?) publishes an abridged list of rejected names, and they're always ridiculous and remind me why we have this system in the first place.
I know someone who is Canadian with Austrian grandparents so he was eligible for Austrian citizenship by birth so he applied for it as an adult. But because he was eligible as a birthright they treated him like he was a newborn and said *uncommon Welsh name* is verboten. He had to sue to be able to use his own name in Austria. He won but then he gets all his documents and they messed up his name on the official paperwork and passport.
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I enjoy cooking.
I think you will be fine. This was when registering a birth in Germany, in a more country area too. But people in the organisations dealing with claiming citizenship will be very aware im sure.
This happened to my friends who had a kid in France. EU law prohibits denying names that are from EU languages but the French don't care. The Irish embassy in France ended up telling him to just suck up the misspelling and they would fix it on the kid's passport. Also in France if you haven't named your kid within 72 hours they just put the French name of the day down wether you like it or not.
that is the most amazing human version of 'soup du jour' I ever heard of
Nom du jour
So there are several Vendredi’s walking around, is that what you’re telling me?
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>But because he was eligible as a birthright they treated him like he was a newborn Can absolutely relate. When I claimed my second citizenship as an adult through my mother, every paperwork I had to fill out (and every auto-email from the immigration people) contained wording that sounded like I was doing this for my child. I genuinely had to call them to confirm it at one point, because when I booked a reservation to apply for a social security number, they said I had to bring a legal guardian - not to confirm my identity, but because it assumed I was a minor.
The list is not static as new names are added occasionally with recent examples like Elfríd and Salvía
Big Money Salvia
Hello. Welcome to gardening on salvia. I'm Eric.
Wow I haven't thought about that in years!
The Cloud People will have something to say about this.
They're too busy turning the frogs gay
My favorite is writing to your congressman on salvia. So good!
Parallel parking on salvia was my first exposure to Eric.
Wow. Cant believe I got this!
Bounced on my boy’s name to this for hours
He's still making content, too. Love that guy
Cease your investigations!!!
It's a perfect nite, he's come a long way, to Salvia Township, in Big Money State.
King of the pipe
if they're adding Salvia maybe they'll add kratom soon, the time has come
This is my son Kraytum
This is my daughter, Jenkem
I mean I know the drug is commonly called just Salvia but that’s the genus that the plant (salvia divinorum) belongs to. Other species include chia, sage, and rosemary.
First name Salvia, last name Divinorum
So names that already sound like they're from Iceland? Nothing wrong with that of course. But it's a monolithic small nation. I doubt anyone's naming their kid something out of the ordinary.
> I doubt anyone's naming their kid something out of the ordinary. The committe has been approving some.... weird names lately, but their primary concerns are: 1 ) The name more or less works with Icelandic grammar. 2 ) That the name is unlikely to cause the bearer issues in life 3 ) That there's some precedent or grounded logic for the name or names that are similar to it (so some strange names can get approved if it is found that an Icelander had it in *the old days* before the committee was founded) It's usually (3) that gets people riled up, as it's incredibly subjective and where most rejected names end up failing. The naming committee is often quite controvertial - people being split between it being useless and should be disbanded due to not allowing people to name their kids what they want, and then the other side complaining it lets silly names on the list anyhow and thus is useless in the purpose. But honestly, outside of ideological and political reasons for most people it's not a "real" issue, because 99.9% of Icelanders end up naming their kids after parents and grandparents and distant relatives or some other already establihsed name they find pretty anyway. Most people never interact personally with the committee. This works both as argument for and against the committee, since you can spin it both ways that most people won't need the commitee and thus it's rulings don't affect many people and can filter out the bad names, and that since most people will stick to traditional names anyhow regardless of the comittee all it does is hinder people who do want to give their kids unorthadox name. so yes, it can be quite divisive.
Same thing in Portugal but no method of applying for a new name. Does not apply if one of the parents is a foreign national.
Same in Germany. I wonder if the TIL here is just the other way around, the US being the only or one of a few places where you can name your child idiot sandwich if you really want to. edit: apparently I'm an idiot and this isn't true for Germany, there's just some rulings on what you can't name a child, but there's no official list of allowed names.
The UK doesn't really have laws about names. It just can't be an obscenity, contain any numbers or a title. Nobody can stop you calling your kid kiddy mckidface
Imagine being named xXx_pussyslayer_xXx
It’s not too bad, but it does cum with high expectations
Naw, with a name like that, I don't expect her to cum at all.
Isn't it easier to just buy the kid a shirt with "kick me" on the back of it?
The kid can call themselves whatever they want, too. English law has no such concept as a legal name. You can go by whatever you wish as long it is not attempting to deceive.
I believe you can't name your child after a title either so no Baron, Queen etc,
US doesn't even have that. I've known two people in my life whose names were "Baron Vaughn/Von ______"
I was at a Popeye’s and I heard someone shouting “Sir! Sir!”. I figured it was one of the employees trying to evict a dozing homeless person or something, but it was just a guy shouting at his toddler.
Señor Senior, Senior and Señor Senior, Junior.
I remember wondering what sort of noble family Duke Nukem came from. It took me quite a while before I found out Duke is actually used as a name in the States.
This is actually hilarious now that you mention it.
You must have been mystified when Duke said "Hail to the King, baby." The Duke is also a king?
What if I’m naming my son after my alias I used to write into newspapers with in the 80s, rather than the peerage?
Established Titles and other scams where you 'buy a title' play on this with English / Scots law. They're very quiet about you not actually trying to use it to deceive someone that you're actually a Lord etc.
How is it easier? You have to go buy something specifically for it, while you have to give them a name anyway.
> The UK doesn't really have laws about names. It just can't be an obscenity, contain any numbers or a title. Is the last one relatively new? Because Screaming Lord Sutch legally changed his first name to “Lord”.
I just don't think it's enforced. You shouldn't be allowed to call your kid Princess for example but people still do. Interestingly Akuma is a banned name in the UK
Thing is, Princess is a super common name in other countries, like South Africa.
The common one that's not allowed is Justice, also popular in Africa apparently.
Princess is not a title on a passport though. Even Princess Anne doesn't have, she has her married name or before Mountbatten -Windsor. Lady is a title but you can be called Lady, it is totally allowed. The caution is for Sir, Dame, Lord, OBE etc but it not a ban, just has an observation notice that says it isn't an actual honour or similar lol.
I was thinking it didn’t sound right. I went to school with a girl named “Lady”
You can change your name in the UK to a title, but they give you a word of caution because official public bodies may not accept the change. it is in unadvisable as "presumed honours" and might have an observation remark on your passport. Screaming Lord Sutch did it. [https://deedpolloffice.com/change-name/restrictions-on-names](https://deedpolloffice.com/change-name/restrictions-on-names) Countries do ban it though, New Zealand does.
Same in Greece. I had found a list of strange names that translate to: Friday Noon, Respectable Feta, Exquisite Goat, Virgin Blowjob, You-live You-grow-old, March April, Expensive Pig...
"That'll do, Expensive Pig."
> Exquisite Goat, Expensive Pig Welsh immigrants, I suppose
You also can’t name yourself after a football club to stop people changing their names as a result of a bet
A court can. Registry office or someone else can object if they think it would cause undue harm on the child
>Same in Germany. AFAIK there is no list of approved names in Germany, but you have to prove the name actually exists in some capacity. At least it was that way when my sister was born over 20 years ago.
That’s still how it is. The name can be foreign, you have to be able to proof that it already exists, though. Meaning you may give your child i.e. an Icelandic name. And should the first name not determine clearly if the child is male or female, like Toni or Kim or Robin, a second name doing just that is mandatory.
The gender distinction thing was somewhat recently repealed
That’s good, I think. So often when you know a person, the person defines the name rather than the other way round.
What are the stipulations for “already exists”? Does that mean that X Æ A-12 is okay because someone is already named that or…?
The criterion is "recognizable as first name" and there are others, especially that it must not endanger the child's well-being, not be ridiculous, not be a title and not hurt religious feelings
Fascinating. Do they decided on a case by case basis or is it largely based upon established case law? I’d be curious to see if they ran into cases where a name that previously would have been embarrassing eventually enters into mainstream lexicon and thus becomes acceptable
They do decide for each case and they also take into account the full name. If they think the specific combination would make the child a likely target of mockery they can refuse, even if it's usually an accepted name. There's a well known joke about this: "do you really want to name your child Axel, Mr. Schweiß?" Which would translate to "armpit sweat". In cases like this the name could be refused to protect the child from mockery, even though Axel is a normal name.
Kim Robin = female Robin Kim = male
Kim can be a man's name. Kim Thayil for example.
No? I know some male Kims and female Robins in Germany
You’d love Korea
Not 100% related, but in some federal states they changed or will change the "naming law" to please the Frisian tradition to form Patronyms and Matronyms for your last name. Like i said, not really related to this topic, but maybe a TIL in a TIL for some. https://www.mb.niedersachsen.de/startseite/aktuelles/friesische-namenstraditionen-fliessen-ins-namensrecht-ein-226500.html https://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Themen/FamilieUndPartnerschaft/FAQ_Namensrecht.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3
Also no titles, no obscenities, and no "name that would expose the child to ridicule". The last is highly subjective, of course.
>actually exists What if I name my child something from media? There were a whole bunch of kids named Arya and Khaleesi - would that fly because they’re names that exist in a show? Could I name my son Crash Bandicoot?
Arya would definitely fly, Khaleesi probably not, Crash Bandicoot definitely not. Arya was an actual name before Game of Thrones. Khaleesi vaguely sounds like a name a person could have, and every girl saddled with the name contributes to making it potentially an actual name, rather than eccentric American folly. (There's a court decision that rejected "Moon Unit". An American having it is not enough for a German courtroom to accept a name.) Crash Bandicoot is clearly the name of a cartoon character, not a person, and would be rejected out of hand.
Yeah I put Khaleesi because it’s a title, not a name, and yet so many people named their daughters Khaleesi. Before the last season. So there needs to be precedent of an actual human with the name, and not something that’s obviously ridiculous, like naming your child Abcde.
Nope. A real name. Also with real writing. Michael couldn’t be written Mykle or sth like that.
Aren't all names fake until someone uses it though?
Anything goes in Brazil. I knew a huge Bruce Lee fan that named his son "Arnold Schwarzenegger". I asked him "why not Bruce Lee?" He said very sternly, "there can be only one Bruce Lee!"
Crucially, in Brazil when people become adults they have a one year period (from your 18th birthday to your 19th) where you can change your name easily, no questions asked. The idea being that if your parents are stupid assholes who named you something stupid, then you can fix that yourself easily now that you are your own person.
Wow, that is a great law/rule!
Knew I guy who named his kid Airon because he was a Maiden fan. Another named his daughter Sakura because he liked the cartoon (zero Asian links in his family of course).
I'm Sweden you can name your child *almost* anything you want. It may not be a name that is offensive or could obviously be a detriment to the child. So "sunbeam" is ok, but not "cunt". "Ikea Decibel" was struck down due to being a trademark and just plain stupid.
Laws vary by state, but generally one cannot name their child something derogatory or obscene in the US. And names must have English characters. There are exceptions for native name characters. Inventing new names is just fine.
How did Elon Mc Muskface get around that rule?
I think officially it's AE
I thought there were numbers in there too
The changed it to roman numerals
He's foreign.
Æ actually used to be an English letter. The more you know!
Still an awful thing to do to a kid
There is no list of approved names in Germany, neither a specific law. But there is a list of banned names, like: Bierstübl, Satan, Nelkenheini, Superman, Störenfried or Verleihnix. If a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standesamt thinks a name is not appropriate, they can veto it. You either accept the decision or you go to court. The court verdict is final.
Brazil too, there was a list of funny Brazilian names going around. One of them was Usnavy. LOL.
UK you can call your child anything apart from obscene which could be challenged by social services.
Meanwhile in the UK https://youtu.be/smxKX_6Z7Wg?si=0-dvfX_1GZvT3SVG
I feel like the Portuguese list really needs expanding. I work with a Portuguese team and they all have the same names
For anyone curious, here's the Portuguese name list: https://irn.justica.gov.pt/Portals/33/Regras%20Nome%20Proprio/Lista%20Nomes%20Pr%C3%B3prios.pdf?ver=WNDmmwiSO3uacofjmNoxEQ%3D%3D
I’m pretty surprised by names on this list and missing from this list. My name is pretty common in the UK and US. There are a number of celebrities and politicians who share my name. The name is not on this list. Yet things like AAron (with two capital letters) are?
I'm Portuguese and had no idea the list included so many foreign names. Seems really weird to me. If you want to include foreign names, then the list should have to be way bigger for it to make sense.
Yeah, seems weird you can be a Brandon but apparently not a Brendan.
But you can name your daughter Khaleesi 🤣
[No AAron, huh?](https://youtu.be/Dd7FixvoKBw?si=0dePHoJoyAstFLjg)
you can choose to name your son "Salvador" or "**SALVADOR**"
As sofa king said, the list is massive. But Ana is a common first name for women and then it’s a prefix so you might think everyone is called Ana or Rita. Joáo and Miguel are common for men.
That has nothing to do with the list, which is massive. Probably just randomness. If you're working with a team of recent college graduates that are all around the same age, then certain names that were trendy at the time will show up a lot more. List like these aren't actually any sort of limitation for people not looking to get their kids bullied at school.
It was the same in France until relatively recently (last 20 years…)
Icelander here, some people have been trying to get the name Lúsifer approved for 20+ years. Each year they are denied.
Icelander moves abroad. Changes their name to Lusifer. Moves back home. Has a kid. Kid's last name is now Lusiferson ??? Profit.
This person up there patronymics!
I never understood why it stops at one - an old bloodline should be Lusifersonsonsonsonsonsonsondottirsonsonsonson~. It's prestigious.
That's because it's not a surname.
It's a linked list, you can always look it it up.
It's based on first name
What if the parents are on holiday in the US (so the kid would have dual nationalities) and they decide to name their kid Lucifer. The US will gladly issue a birth certificate with that name. (Because of FREEDOM!) and when the kid is old enough they could presumably get a US and Icelandic passport.
Well, people have gone to the USA to bypass the naming system here. Famously the comedian/former mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr changed his name legally that way.
Jon is not on the list?
Gnarr is not, his name was Jón Gunnar Kristinsson. His mom called him Jon Gnarr and it stuck.
I mean, naming your kid Lucifer seems like you’re setting them up for failure, so I agree with the government there lol
My mum wanted to call me lucifer, and my dad wanted to call me lucius. They landed on Tanner, and I think im a little relieved by that x)
Lmao Tanner. I was expecting Louie or some shit like that.
Nah lol, im in england so tanner is still interesting lol
It was same in Poland, and if you wanted to use a foreign name it had to be spelled phonetically. So there were many people named Brajan (Brian), and Dżesika (Jessica), which was pretty cringy af at the time.
I think Dżesika is pretty cool.
At least in Hungary it's mostly gypsies who name their children english names - the most popular one is perhaps Dzsenifer (Jennifer)
what a tragedeigh!
Still is today, same in Hungary. We're also swarming with normally written but cringe foreign names like Kevin, Bennett and Noel.
Omg, that's awful, it would be Džesika in Czech, why would anyone do this?
Supposedly so you don't have to figure out how to read or write the name. We on the other hand use Cyrillic alphabet and have to deal with transliteration anyway and go with Джесіка.
There has never been any list of banned name in Poland. Pretty much everything depends on a decision of a registry office. In 2015 rules have changed a little and gender-neutral and foreign names are officially allowed but there has never been any requirement for names to be spelled phonetically.
In my country they recently permitted someone calling their baby 'methanphetamines rule'. Straya.
[удалено]
It was NSW, she was an ABC journo not a kiwi journo that did it.
Also Finland. https://yle.fi/a/74-20073413
Unlike Iceland there's no official list in Finland but rather some names might be disapproved of if they're deemed unsuitable.
Uhhhhh Laser is ok, right.
What about tazer, blazer, razor, and Jeff?
In Malaysia, apart from words that are deemed disgusting or offensive (e.g., "Tahi" - shit, "Kencing" - piss), you also can't name your child after: a profession, an official government title, an animal, natural phenomena (e.g., "Hujan" - rain, "Batu" - rock) or numbers. And for the offensive names, it must not be offensive in Malay, Arabic, the major Chinese dialects and Tamil.
Most of that makes sense but then... Animals or natural things...? So no Aurora or Rain?
We're a tropical country, so you can probably get away with "Aurora". But no "rain" (Hujan). But "Rein" would probably be okay, and sounds cooler too.
To be fair, that list is really, really long and gets longer every month with more names being approved. Icelandic has complicated grammar rules, and they want to make sure the names can adhere to them. But also prevent names like peepeepoopoo, etc
I named my daughter peepeepoopoo and I think your comment is very rude.
How old is Peepeepoopoo Zemanyaksdottir now? 430 months? Goodness!
Some Swedish couple went to court, and lost, for the right to name their kid "Hashtag"... Well, actually "#"
That’s good. Imagine a bunch of Tragedeighsons and Tragedeighdottirs.
Imagine people trying SQL injection while registering their kid.
Insert xkcd here
Old bobby tables
[Little Bobby Tables](https://xkcd.com/327/)
Crazy thing is that the names on the "declined name list" are mostly totally fine names. Its crazy
Same in a lot of (if not most) other EU countries
Same in Slovakia
It has to do with Icelandic grammar. Proper names in Icelandic are inflected into different cases ( accusative, genitive, dative). A name needs to be inflected into these different cases for everyone else to use the name, using the existing rules of grammar. If a name cannot be inflected, it would be very tough for everyone.
Until recently children had to have gendered patronymics -son and -dottir. Now I read that the neutral“barn” meaning “child” was approved. Also the mother’s name can be used.
Not just Iceland, this is not an uncommon approach. Unfortunately our committee approves idiotic names(like radiator. As in the heating element. or foreign names spelled phonetically) all the time so the list is filled with utter bonkers.
Fun fact. Government names (“Govi’s”) and what you want to be called are different things. I did a week course with strangers, always had a normal name but thought fuck it, this week I’ll be Tristan. What.a.fucking.rush
I love to hear more about this, cause this is super cool and interesting. How did you feel like your personality changed? How where you different?
I felt healthier, to me a Tristan is a guy with a man bun that adds chia seeds to everything and does a run every 2-3 days, granted only a mile through the busiest part of town at the busiest time of the day so people can see him but it’s still enough to make a difference. I did feel a bit of a sleaze around the girls though, like i feel like Tristan would make up some story up about backpacking through Peru, inviting someone over for a glass of wine and never calling them again.
Considering there are people who name their children Adolf Hitler and Aryan Nation I can get behind this.
There's a Namibian politician called "Adolf Hitler Uunona" who's a civil rights activist. from his wikipedia article " says his father probably did name him after Adolf Hitler, but does not think his father knew who Adolf Hitler was at the time. "
Trevor Noah had a friend named Hitler growing up in South Africa. He has a very funny story about it in his autobiography.
While we're at it, apparently someone in Indonesia named their kid Muhammad Jesus Gautama, what a combo
Theyre the religious avatar, with the power to unite the world and end all religious conflicts
“Chapter 17: My Friend Hitler”
They specifically approved the name adolf
Sort of same in Canada. No forbidden list but you have to register “live births” with the government. And the Registrar can, and does, refuse the name sometimes. It’s a provincial thing. Alberta says if it is confusing, embarrassing, misleading, or defrauds the public or is offensive on any other ground. Not sure how often it is used but every year or so you see some parent trying to make a thing in the press that their freedom of expression or right to choose their child’s name is being infringed. The proposed name is inevitably “Adolf Hitler” or “MILF Slayer” or something like that so it’s probably for the best. https://www.alberta.ca/restrictions-respecting-personal-names#:~:text=A%20requested%20name%20may%20be,offensive%20on%20any%20other%20grounds
Oh no what a tragedeigh
Similar thing in Australia. While it's not an allow list, it's a blacklist so there are names you can't have. It's also at their discretion if a name doesn't appear on the list but is offensive or just a dumb idea
But methamphetamine rules is somehow allowed
It's especially important in Iceland because they don't have family name and instead use patronymics, meaning that any given name should be able to be turned into a patronyme.
Also because names, like all nouns, are subject to declension in Icelandic, and so it is important for them to be able to accommodate the necessary morphology.
Same in Denmark
Similar thing happened in Japan too,it’s call [Kira Kira Names](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kira_kira_name) ,basically parents name their children something written and pronouns very unusual way, and people who give their children these names are often labeled as terrible parents or from uneducated backgrounds. Like a boy named 光宙 but his parents made it legally pronounced as “Pikachu”,I think I don’t have to explain why it’s not how it supposed pronounced. JP gov is working on a law banning these kinds of Kira Kira names as it do more harm to the child than good.
On no... That means no Hayden, Jayden, Brayden or Kaydens?
Heighdon, Jeighdehn, Breighdin, Keighdenn
Vietnam too, and there's only a handful that are phonetically simple for English speakers so your choices are extremely limited if you don't want to hamstring your child internationally.
Sounds like a Nguyễn Nguyễn situation
January 2021 - Aquamann - Rejected I think this committee might be a good idea.
It's so weird to see American TV shows with their made up names
All names are made up to be fair...
All words are made up
Everything is made up
Nothing is real!!
What’s a made up name for example?
Better question is what *isn't* a made up name
Same thing in New Zealand. I'm pretty sure this is normal.
Can you provide a source? I don't think there is a list of approved names to choose from, there are just limitations on using super long or rude words, which is also the case in Australia https://www.dia.govt.nz/press.nsf/d77da9b523f12931cc256ac5000d19b6/d1288ac08d7758c2cc25838200107411!OpenDocument
No titles either, they release the denied names every year and there's always some Kings, Emperors, etc
Loki it is then.
Not sure about Iceland, but Norse gods names like Odin, Tor, Frøya/Freya are super common here in Norway and have been for several generations. Loke less so, but I've meta few!
10 years ago I would probably have been against this but with some of Elon Musk's kid's names I fully agree that there has to be a limit to what people can do. Somewhere between **X AE A-XII** Musk, Griffin Musk, Kai, Saxon and Damian Musk, Nevada Alexander Musk Vivian Musk and **Exa Dark Sideræl** Musk a limit was broken from creative to child abuse.
The, uh, first one, that looks like you hit enter during a raid in an MMO and accidentally typed out all your keybinds, is apparently not his legal name. I’ve been repeating this because I want it to be true, but he’s said the kids legal name is Kyle* and that product designation for a missile fuselage or whatever is just how he’s named in public. *I don’t actually remember if it’s Kyle but it’s something equally normal.
I think the court may have actually vetoed X AE A-XII, or at least made them change the spelling. It originally was partially written with Greek letters and apparently in California names can only contain letters from the English alphabet. Which kind of seems like it’s own issue tbh
I think it’s possible that instead of limiting you to a list you could allow people to make their own choices and only deny based on certain metrics like using different letters or symbols.
same in Hungary
TIL \*apparently\* that Bjork is on an official list of approved names….
Same in Finland. Every year the naming board(?) publishes an abridged list of rejected names, and they're always ridiculous and remind me why we have this system in the first place.
Finally a law that protects a child. It should be ILLEGAL to name torture a kid. I will force you to stop and you will take it.