I never knew that some countries regulate baby names!

[SESthebrave]

See here

With all the discussions that go on here about names are there any suggestions for MN regulations for baby names? Posters could check that list first before asking further opinions

How about:

• check the popular baby names for last year and eliminate the top 10 from last year
• do not give your child a first name that is the same as their surname

(I went to school with a poor guy called Morgan Morgan!)

• no naming your child after your/ your DP's favourite football team
• if you do have a name that you love and really want to use, don't bother asking. Just use it!

Any others?

• watch the initials don't spell out stupid, rude or silly words

• don't call them Superman, Snake, Bucket and quoting the sonographer in Friends "please do not name your child Pheobo"

• imagine telling them off in public - would people:
  a, sympathize with you for having to deal with such awful behaviour or
  b, secretly being on kids side and thinking "scream louder, payback time for giving you such a ridiculous name"

• do ask your kids what they think - just for the hilarity of it, boys were determined DD should be called "Yoda Shark" if a boy or "Yoda Yogurt" if a girl

• do ask your kids what they think for narrow escapes - DS2 was gasping at the thought of calling baby BeneDick!!!

1. Only go for a name that everyone is going to be able to spell and pronounce. There's no point naming your child Xscherezade and then insisting it's pronounced 'Bob'.

1. Choose a name that will suit an adult, not just a baby or small child. Imagine a future boss using it in the sentence "Shall we offer X that promotion / make X a partner next year?"

The catholics (I am one) have been objecting to christening names ... I seem to remember Damien being banned because of the film... Not that I've seen it!

"pronounced Bob" - you are hilarious! and correct

If I'd had my way, my daughter would have been called Rhonda. In the end we settled for Natasha. Now, who's idea was that?

This has been discussed on mumsnet previously here

It is hard to believe how differently countries approach this issue!

With regard to the mumsnet rules, I raise your no top 10 names to no top 100 names! (joke)

ThreeBeeOneGee - my DD's name breaks your first rule but then I get asked routinely how to spell my first name and surname when I think I must have one of the most common English girl's names from the 70s and an equally well known surname.

I can't believe someone named their child Vagina. (on OP's link)

Yes, maybe another rule should be no body parts but then Iris is a pretty and inoffensive name!

The registrar that registered both my DD's refused a couple calling their child Gollum!
Apparently they conceded before she had to make it an official refusal and went on to call him John!

OP - your first rule and last rule could clash on occasion!

When I was expecting DS, our top choice of girls name was a top 10 name that I'd loved for years and really wanted to use. But not an issue in the end as we had a DS and not a DD

Afraid mine would be no made-up spellings. I don't mean always have the original spelling but just don't make it up (I recently saw Claire/Clare but spelled Klayre... That kind of thing.)

Antwanne. I'm guessing that's Antoine in American English.

Call centre person I spoke to was called that.

I was named after my dad's favourite football team - not Chelsea.

Love my name, but wish the story behind it wasn't so bleeding stupid.

Let's hope it wasn't Arsenal.

I like the idea of state approved names

I believe the rules in Germany are that the name has to be:

• already in existence as a name, and demonstrably so in your home culture. So the registrar would be more tolerant of us calling our DC an Irish name than a German family with no Irish connections, IYSWIM. This actually happened to us - DD1 has a classical first name which is pretty universal in Western Europe but we chose something Irish as her middle name. We also took along an Irish book of names where it was listed, but in the end the registrar didn't need to see it - the fact that we were not German was enough 'evidence'. However, we later met a German couple whose DD had the same two names, but in reverse order (the Irish name first and universal name second), and the registrar had raised merry hell before finally allowing it. The registrars tend to be quite wary of being accused of racism so are MUCH more generous with non Germans.

- appropriate for the gender of that child So you wouldn't be allowed to call your DD Johannes or Thomas, for instance. There are a few German names which are traditionally used for both sexes, such as Gerrit, so the 'commonly used name' argument seems to trump the 'need' for not causing gender confusion.

• *dignified and respectable, and unlikely to cause humiliation for the child'. So most of the weirder names people try out here would be excluded for that reason. As well as Osama bin Laden, calling your daughter after a football team, that Hula girl in NZ, Zowie Bowie, Moon Unit Zappa, Apple Paltrow etc.

I think most of that makes sense. But sometimes the registrars really get above themselves and interfere too much. A woman once told me she wanted to call her son Max-Philip (these dreaded double names which are absolutely allowed in Germany, unfortunately) and the registrar told her he thought Philip-Max sounded better, so she went along with that instead! That is surely overstepping the mark. On the other hand, the current British obsession with choosing a unique name is frankly bizarre - what's so bad about choosing something in the top 10?

It's funny people mention not Iris as it's a body part, I always think of the flower!

Definitely no made up spellings, drives me mad! I know a Jorja and Harvee.

"what's so bad about choosing something in the top 10?"

Because it often defeats the purpose of naming someone/something! I know at least 10 adult Steves (including 2 Steve Smiths!) that it can sometimes get a little confusing.

There are SO many names to choose from, especially outside the top 100, that it is a shame not to make use of them! Makes life not only easier but more interesting too .

Nullius - I feel sorry for German parents then, that's bureaucracy gone mad!

People have to be allowed to make their own free choices, although Gollum, Humpty Dumpty etc are obviously going too far!

As time goes on, new names gradually enter the language. If this kind of rigid system had been stuck to for a few hundred years, we would only have a handful of names to choose from. As for names having to come from your own culture, how silly, many of our most popular and classic names come from the bible, so originally Hebrew and not even European (Elizabeth, Daniel, Hannah, Benjamin, etc, etc.)

My old Spanish Spanish teacher was called Chloe. Her dad threatened not to call her anything if they insisted he couldn't have Chloe which they had been trying to do.

The only problem with names that once appeared unfashionable rapidly come in to fashion, shoot up the lists and all of a sudden your unusual name is number one grrrrrrr.

They used to regulate in Spain until relatively recently. My friend Maribel who's 40 had to have 'Maria Isabel' on her birth certificate as her name didn't legally exist, even though there are plenty of Maribels around.

Trouble with top 10 rule is DD2 is probably top ten for her year, but not the year before.

She was meant to be far rarer than DD1. She isn't.