To think that Britain should take a tougher line on certain children's names?

[floraeasy]

I name this baby... Superman. And another one... Gazza.

Oh, and let’s call this little mite... Gandalf.

And why not throw in Arsenal for good measure!

All the above are British children’s real first names – and they have all been given official blessing by our liberal authorities.

In Britain, all names, however ridiculous, are up for grabs. Hence celebrities can bestow their children with the likes of Apple, Harper Seven, Zowie and Fifi Trixibelle.

babies

The General Register Office says there are no restrictions on parents - except for exceptional cases, such as a name which could be deemed offensive, when an official could refuse to register it.

But such unusual names could blight a child’s future, according to Professor Helen Petrie, from the University of York, who has studied the psychological effects of having an unusual name.

“I found that people with unusual names had a really hard time, particularly when they were children,” she said.

They described getting teased and how traumatic it could be - because all children want to fit in. But when they became adults, they are often glad that they have something to help them stand out from the crowd.

“People with very common names sometimes feel that they aren’t unique enough. So I think there’s a happy medium to be struck.”

So isn’t it time we took a leaf out of baby naming books from other countries and make such monikers illegal?

Here are some of the worst offenders that have been officially banned in their own countries, but that any Tombola, Dickdastardly or Haribo could call their babies in Britain.

• Lucifer, V8, Christ and Messiah are among the baby names rejected by New Zealand’s department of internal affairs. Disappointed parents wishing to christen their offspring with numbers (89), letters (J, I, T) and punctuation marks (*) were also given short shrift.

• Fish and Chips (twins), Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit also got the kybosh, though the New Zealand judges did allow Number 16 Bus Shelter and Violence.

• But the top of the NZ banned list must surely be Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

• In Sweden, there is a law preventing parents from naming their children Metallica and Elvis. But in a parental fightback, a couple attempted to name their child Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116. Yes, it’s spelled correctly. We’ve double-checked! And apparently, it’s pronounced “Albin”, though we’re not sure how.

• In Italy, judges prevented a couple calling their kid Venerdi aka Friday. They reckoned the name - taken from Robinson Crusoe - would expose the boy to “mockery”.

• Over in Norway, a woman was thrown in jail for two days for giving her child the unapproved name Gesher aka Bridge.

• On the other side of the world, the Malaysian government banned the name Chow Tow. It sounds harmless enough, until you realise the translation is Smelly Head!

• But in China, a family wanted to keep their baby’s name short and sweet, by simply calling it @. Perfect for Twitter, we’d have thought.

• In Germany, the names Stompie, Woodstock and Grammophon have been turned down, whereas the similarly strange Speedy, Lafayette and Jazz were allowed.

• In New Zealand, a whopping 77 names have been banned. They include Lucifer, Mafia No Fear, 4Real, 2nd, 3rd or 5th and ‘.’ (or full stop!).

• But surely top of the pile (excuse the pun) of banned baby names is this from Denmark: Anus. Apparently, the judges thought the baby’s parents were trying to make an a**e of their offpring!

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/08/banned-the-world-s-most-ridiculous-baby-names_n_7379492.html

kieren It's a pet form of Greta which in turn is a pet form of Margaret.

Whoops x post!

your baby. Call it what you like.
No, your baby is a person, not a possession. You have duties and responsibilities, not ownership.
Children deserve to have a name that is not going to cause them years of grief.
I don't think there should be very strict rules, but I do think there should be some discretion to refuse sometimes.

I strongly reject the idea of the state dictating what people can and cannot name their own children.

There is lots of research around the impact of names on children. I don't think all parents take this seriously enough.
I know a L'Oreal, of course that name will have an impact on the child.

kieren

Yup, Greta comes from Margaret... Like tomayto said.

- Forbidding any name that will “harm the child’s well-being or be offensive to a third party”, so shocking, insulting or laughable names are out. Bewes says names like “Mary Christmas” or “Richard Head” would be out.
- No giving a boy a girl’s name or a girl a boy’s name. Some of the top 100 girls’ names in 2013 in the United States might not pass this Swiss test. Avery, Riley, Peyton and Aubrey might be too masculine.
- Biblical “bad guys” like Cain and Judas are forbidden.
- No naming your child a brand name. No Chanel, Porsche, Mercedes or Bentley.
- No place names. Paris Hilton is a no-go. So are names like Brooklyn, London and Sydney – all of which were in the U.S. top 100 last year.
- Surnames can’t be used as first names. Most of my friends from the South are appalled by this one. (there are exceptions if the surname is actually a first name in an other country...)
- No making up a brand new name. Condoleeza Rice would never have gotten that name if she was born in Switzerland.

I think I prefer the English rules, tbh....

(btw, I simply copied this from an English article. But this is more or less correct. There are more rules about using shortenings of a name etc...)

Babies become children with their own feelings and rights who then become adults also with feelings and rights. To limit naming rights of parents' is to protect people (their children) from suffering.

I live in Finland where we have naming laws. They are quite simple really, you can't name a child after an immediate relative (so no dad jr.), you can't give a boy a girl's name or vice versa (Finnish names are quite separate in the genders), you must give a name that follows Finnish spelling and pronunciation rules (so no ridiculous spelling). Exceptions are giving for names deriving from the parents' ethnic heritage. Gender exceptions sometimes get through as well. You have to send off a form to register your baby's name (unless you christen them at a church, in which case the vicar deals with the name rules) to the municipal authorities and they decide if its legal or not.

What's wrong with Aubrey

What's wrong with Aubrey?? He's a Georgette Heyer character!

Great minds Kali!!

"Unusual names are only unusual the first few times you hear it"

Nope. There's no amount of times I could hear, 'Anus' in order for it to be unremarkable. Clearly a huge difference between unusual/quirky and offensive and likely to cause a degree of harm (socially or emotionally) to a child.

And I think there is nothing wrong with Aubrey. But I have known a grown up Aubrey.
Unusual names are different from ridiculous ones. So no brand names for example would be a sensible rule.

What's wrong with Harper? It's a lovely name.
Zowie is surely just Zoe but spelt differently.
Still ,Moon Unit and Inspektor Pilot - the best names ever.

Derek on the other hand, now that's just wrong.

Mercedes was a girl's name before it was a car

you can't name a child after an immediate relative (so no dad jr.)

I totally understand naming your child after a beloved relative, but I always find it weirdly narcissistic when men name their sons after themselves. (And it is usually men - I personally know lots of these but no mum who has given her daughter her own name, though they must exist.)

I personally know lots of these but no mum who has given her daughter her own name, though they must exist

QE2 AND QETQM?

Interesting point though - thinking about it I would have to say the same.

I might have misread it but I'm sure a girl on tv last night was called Dementia. It was Rich House Poor House if anyone saw it.

Three of the four supermen are Romanian, though two might be the same person.

I'm with you on daft names, OP. There's people out there with even dafter names. Some I can't mention as too identifying, but things, for example, like Aubergine. I like to think that nowdays common sense and impact on the child is higher on the agenda, though I suspect many would still be accepted.

I've heard of a Kenobi. As in Obi-wan.

Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 - Albin - yeah, Malcolm of Scotland right? What's wrong with that?

C'mon the New Zealand ones aren't genuine. People try those names for a laugh and so they can do the NZ equivilant of a Daily Mail sad face.

Yes location matters. I've worked with Wolf, Pony, Horse and Bubbles (and many many more you'd consider BU) in China. No one bats an eyelid. Ha! No one, now he was a character.....

I don't know the queen personally, CH8!

On odd but excellent names: I knew a kid during the apartheid years whose optimistic anti-apartheid activist parents had called him We Will Be A Nation in their language (which I can't remember, but the short form of his name came out as Toots, so everyone was happy).

I also like the old-skool nonconformist names - Endeavour, anyone?

Number 16 Bus Stop this is a cultural misunderstanding. Sometimes Pasifika people who move to NZ name their children words that they see in neon or public places because they assume them to be approved of. There is no intention to be inappropriate, they're just trying to fit into a culture they are new to.