Illegal Baby Names!

[SephrinaX]

Saw this article on 'illegal' baby names. My name is apparently banned in Saudi Arabia.

planetradio.co.uk/northsound/world/trending-news/baby-names-rules-illegal-confirmed-2/

Anyone know what would happen if I tried to move there?

DD1's name is banned in Portugal - as is the traditional shortening of my name wonder if I'd be ok with the ie ending

Ooh my name is banned in Saudi Arabia as well!! I wonder what the reasoning behind it is

Lol! A few of my family scattered on there!

I think the German one is interesting - you can only have a unisex name if it's double barrelled with a more gender specific name

I'm surprised at the ones banned in Portugal, like the article says, they must really dislike the British royal family!

Wonder what the problem is with Stephan in Hungary?

Some of these are so bizarre. They're just normal names.

Would have been a better article if they explained WHY

Anus

I really want to know why Malika is banned in Saudi!

Ooh mine is banned in Iceland! Who wants to call their baby Adolf Hitler?!

Malika means 'Queen', I think.

They're none too keen upon girls people getting ideas of grandeur there.

Think Laurel might be referring to crowns - the Quran is referred to as the Crown of Islam, IIRC. so it would be like naming a kid The Word of God.

This is a bit misleading, I know for certain that in the US it varies by state. One of the names listed is not illegal everywhere as I know of both a fictional character in a TV programme and a real life relative that has that name.....

I don't believe the link. It says King is banned in America, but it was in the top 100 in NYC a couple of years ago
www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/about/press/pr2019/top-baby-names-2018.page

Ain't no names banned in the USA.

Hmm, says "Rogue" is banned but I genuinely know a little "Rogue".

My name is also on the banned list in Saudi. I think that it is a derivative of royal meaning in another European language so maybe that’s why? Like PP I wonder what would happen if I visited and had to introduce myself?

Some of these seem a bit random such as William? That’s a pretty regular name? I thought Zara/Sarah would be banned in some places on the grounds of royal title meaning because it means princess . But I thought Zara/Sarah was pretty popular in places like Saudi Arabia that are Muslim?

It’s not something I have ever thought about up to this.

Doesn't it just prove how thick some people are? I mean, what Australian sits down and decides that Spinach or Batman is just the name for their new baby.

Just as well some countries have laws to save children from their own parents' stupidity. Every time I see a thread from a poster wanting to call their child Cuddly-Blankey or SweetiePrincess I think we should have the same laws here.

Some of them it’s not so much that the names are banned, but that the names aren’t on the approved list. Just like a baby name book written by the powers 😬

I would imagine that in Portugal they haven't banned William/Catherine - just that English spelling.

So you can use Guilherme or Caterina.

I was accidentally born in a different country, and my parents were not allowed to give me the name they had chosen, which would have been acceptable here in the UK. I was born in a Catholic country, and the name is a Bible name.

Some of those are totally understandable but others are incredibly vanilla names. Weird.

I know a family in Germany whose baby boy name was rejected because it ended with the letter 'a'.

Also Germany, an expat family who wanted the use the mother's maiden name as their daughter's middle name. Wasn't allowed because it 'wasn't a girl's name'.

The French used to have a list of approved names; Jean-Paul, Marie-Claire etc, from which you had to choose. North African Arabs weren't having that, and soon there were hoardes of unregistered children turning up at school, and they had to relent.

Spain under Franco did as well, I think. Had to be a Spanish/Catholic name. But lots of people got round it by just using nicknames or similar names. I taught adults in the early 90s, all born mid-70s so just on the cusp of the democracy. I had a Maria del Carmen who called herself Caren, a Jose Maria who was Kevin and lots of abbreviations and contractions of names. I also had a nun student called "Inmaculada Concepcion" just to provide a bit of balance...