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

[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 :)