Naming Laws

[girlsteve.livejournal.com]

A recent post got me thinking: how do you guys feel about baby naming laws? Should a couple be free to call their child whatever they want, or are there some circumstances where the government should intervene? If so, what circumstances should those be?

For example, would you legally stop a couple naming their kid:

Adolf Stalin
Derek, if it was girl
Suzanna, if it was a boy
Bluebottle Wasp
Tia Maria
Heavenly Harani Tiger Lily Trixibelle
Shithead (pronounced she-thade, obviously :D)
Lindsay Lohana
Max, if their surname was Power
Nateuhleigh (pronounced Natalie)
Tori-Lou-Kate
Kaye (as opposed to Kay)

That’s as many made up examples as I can find of names that would contravene naming laws in other countries – are they right?

What do you reckon to the German law that makes you chose names from a pre-approved list?

What would your criteria be?

Comments

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

Interesting.
Generally speaking, I think that people should be able to name their kids whatever they want, unless it is something they will be teased with (like Shithead) or bears very bad connotations (Adolf Stalin). I'm also against very female/feminine names on boys and very masculine/male names on girls, but that's a tough call. It is hard to draw a line there, so I would not forbid it.
I'm opposed to choosing names from a pre-approved list, because it really interfers with people's freedom of choice.

To be short, despite all the bad names people give their children nowadays, if I were to make up the criteria, there would not be many, because I value the freedom of choice pretty high. So, from that list, I would only stop Adolf Stalin, Shithead and maybe Bluebottle Wasp.
Just because I disagree with/disapprove of someone's naming choice, doesn't make me want to stop them. After all, if the name is bothering the child later on in life, he/she could always change it.

[xpaniic.livejournal.com]

I think that you should be able to name your child whatever you want. If the child grows up and REALLY does not like their name, they always have the option of changing it or going by a nickname/middle name.

If there would be any baby naming laws I think the only one that would be okay is not naming your children after curse words.

[amai-amaya.livejournal.com]

As far as I know (and I'm not completely sure here, I admit it) German law does not make you choose names from a pre-approved list.

There are just a few general guidelines you have to follow. You can't name your kid something like shithead because the name mustn't embarrass the child.

Although German law is a bit stricter concerning names I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
At least you wouldn't even have to deal with parents wanting to name their son/daughter/whatever 4real or something equally ridiculous. Again, I'm not complete sure that what I just said is true :>

[amai-amaya.livejournal.com]

+ly

[scouty.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU !

can only agree in every word you wrote

[christhiane.livejournal.com]

Norway lifted name restrictions only a few years back. Some names were prohibited. You could have an unusual name with a more traditional one, too.

I generally think people should be able to name their kids whatever they want unless it carries really bad connotations or sounds like a bad word or whatever .

[scouty.livejournal.com]

as amai_amaya already said german law does not make you choose names from a pre-approved list !!!

german law only says
By German law, a child's name has to meet two conditions: (1) it must reflect the sex of the child, and (2) it must not endanger the 'well-being of the child.'

THATS it !!!

if you choose a name and that name is unknown you only have to proof that this name exists !

IMO it really ok...as you still can name your child whatever you want (apart from "embarrassing" names and tbh I dont want a bustop // D´lila // jospeh for a girl etc)

IMO german name law is alright !

[scouty.livejournal.com]

lol

of course the first sentence should be like this :

as amai_amaya already said german law does not make you choose names from a pre-approved list !!!

[arbus.livejournal.com]

so i am curious, does it mean that you cant name your child names like taylor and morgan, since they are unisex?

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

I would imagine that it means those names would never have become unisex and would still be male names, especially if the law went into effect early enough.

[scouty.livejournal.com]

yes

e.g. we dont have girls with names like joseph or alexander ... they are boys names

BUT if a name is unisex somewhere like taylor you can name a girl and a boy taylor
if there is any problem with someone from the "standesamt" who has to register the name you have to find someone who is already named that and then its fine
(but they wouldnt allow joseph for a girl as it is a boys name ONLY!....well..still ;) )

but we do have names that became unisex here as jona/h or luca // mika // robin // sascha/sasha // malin // dominique etc etc (well we have lots)

[scouty.livejournal.com]

no...you can :)

they shouldnt be a problem as they are very common names...(and you can find hundreds of people with that name everywhere and they are in every book about names)
so you can name your child morgan and taylor without any problem
but sometimes if you want an unisex name a "standesamt" (registry office // Department of Human Services) in your town could say that you need to give a not unisex middle name so the gender is obvious for everyone
thats it
now you can give your child an unisex name

and sometimes an unisex name can be given without a not unisex middle name - when the name you want to give is here mainly used for one gender
e.g. kai is an unisex name but here in germany most kai´s are boys/men so most "standesamt" would say its ok if you name your babyboy kai without a middle name
another example is jona/h as both gender use it here so most of times they ask you to give another (middle) name to make sure everyone knows the gender of this little human beeing

they just want to make sure that the child can live with the name without beeing teased

I hope you know what I mean..my english isnt the best...but i tried to explain it for you

feel free to ask whatever you want :)

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I'm in favour of naming laws if they prevent the parents giving their child an offensive or extremely embarrassing name. Now, I'm not talking about stopping them from naming their kid 'Aydyn', even though I think that's embarrassing. I'm talking not letting them name their kid 'Piece of Crap', or 'Batman'.

So basically, Adolf Stalin wouldn't be allowed, but Tori-Lou-Kate would. Tori-Lou-Kate might cause the kid a bit of grief, but Adolf Stalin is actually offensive.

[djador.livejournal.com]

How would Batman be embarrassing? That would be 100% awesome. =P

[krysteener.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wish there were laws against naming your child stupid things.

Honestly though, I think parents should be free to name their kid whatever they want. Unfortunately, some parents are idiots and their kids get stuck with shit names.

I agree with xpaniic. The only law I would be behind would be a law against using curse words in your kids name.

[memorymaze.livejournal.com]

I think you should be allowed to name your child anything as long as it is not offensive to anyone. Like, if you wanna name your kid FouFou Lisabel Dosatrix, fine, but not Fuck Alot or something stupidly offensive.

[willsjoy.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Fuck Alot. God that's funny.

What's hard though, is that what is offensive to someone may not be offensive to others. I know people who would find Fuck Alot hysterical and not offensive. I find it offensive, though hysperical.

[sharon20lostie.livejournal.com]

There's a difference between unusual and cruel...for example if we go with some celebrity names

Ocean and Shiloh are unusual.

Audio science and Moon Unit are cruel.

Honeslty, I think one of the parts of being a good parents is giving them names they can live with. Cruel names should be illgal.

[blue-suspenders.livejournal.com]

I think that for the most part parents should be able to name their kid whatever. However, stringing a bunch of curse words together is just torturing the poor kid.

[monalyssasmile.livejournal.com]

As much as I hate how some people name their children, I am thoroughly against laws prohibiting certain names from being used. I don't have any really strange names that I like, but I'd be paranoid that my favorite names wouldn't qualify.

[girlsteve.livejournal.com]

I apologise if i got the German Laws wrong - the post was based entirely on information I got from a German friend, so if I'm wrong, my bad :)

If anyone does know about it though, I am quite interested - when you say you have to prove it's a real name elsewhere, does that mean you aren't allowed to make one up? Or if it's a reasonable invention - like when people make surnames into firstnames, but they're unoffensive and nice sounding names - can you grt that approved?

[sharon20lostie.livejournal.com]

It's not about curbing creativity..no one's insisting we all stick to Mary, John, Anne...etc. Just that we protect kids if there's parents decide to go for some completly crazy name no one could live with.

studies have shown that kids with really weird names have troubple making freinds and generally don't have the same social skills as those with more normal names. It's not harmless to give your kid a wacky name.

I have a normal name so I can't imagine having to say 'yeah, it's embarressing isn't it?' everytime I introduced myself to someone or having to laugh it off.

Like I said, unusal is okay. But cruel and weird is not. Surely anyone can tell the difference between something like Asher or Lake, and something like Audio science or Pilot inspector Rajareef?

[girlsteve.livejournal.com]

I don't know... some of the things you see in birth annoncements - there can't be that many wantonly cruel parents out there, surely?

[sarahness.livejournal.com]

The only name that should be illegal is Heavenly Harani Tiger Lily Trixibelle.

[seksimaggie.livejournal.com]

In a joking sense, I've always thought there should be laws about things like names and haircuts and how much make-up you're allowed to wear and stuff that people just sabotage themselves and their children with.

In seriousness, though, I had oppression of the freedom of speech and expression, and it irritates me that there are laws about how you can name your baby. But on the other hand, I'm glad 4real's parents didn't get their way (if you remember that story), even though what they chose instead was not really better. I just wish people had enough common sense that no one even had to think up making laws about how to name your babies.