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Original poster

Baby names rejected by French registrars

120 replies

ShadowPuppets · 18/02/2022 11:23

Apparently in France the registrars have quite a strict set of criteria for baby names and this list has been published as names rejected by them in 2021...

Fraise
Nutella
Anomalie
Titeuf
Prince-William
Bob l'eponge
Excel
Metallica
Asterix
Spirou
CR7
Lucifer
Clafoutis
Manhattan
Anal
Mini-Cooper
Daisygual
Fleur de Marie
Folavril
MJ

Some of them seem quite innocuous to me after hanging out on this board! No Balonz, sadly Grin. I do wonder about whoever tried to register their child under the French version of 'SpongeBob SquarePants'....

The main surprise for me was that I actually think Anomalie for a girl is quite pretty Blush Thank god this pregnancy is a DS or DH might have been overruling me!

Source - quite interesting background on the French rules if Twitter's translate button is accurate! twitter.com/fenarinarsa/status/1493578412279087114

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godmum56 · 19/02/2022 19:33

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

I wish they’d do similar here, to stop so many poor kids being saddled with God-awful names, because the parents want something look-at-me and yooneek.

I don’t know whether it’s still the case, but IIRC in Greece there was a permitted list of names and you couldn’t use any others.

IIRC they were all, or mostly, saints’ names.

really? you want a stranger to approve your child's name?
BiscuitLover3678 · 19/02/2022 19:34

Daisygual sounds like the designer brand desigual

TravellingFrom · 19/02/2022 19:39

@Mushypeasandchipstogo

Some of those banned names are hideous but a friend of mine was told Megan was banned for her daughter as it was a car’s name!
That wasn’t Megan but MeganE (which is the name of a car)
BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 19/02/2022 19:58

I wonder why Fraise isn't allowed when Framboise is a recognised (if not very common) girl's name.

chesirecat99 · 19/02/2022 20:02

@Mushypeasandchipstogo

Some of those banned names are hideous but a friend of mine was told Megan was banned for her daughter as it was a car’s name!
Mégane is a common name in France. However, there was a court case about a girl whose parents wanted to name her Mégane Renaud and weren't allowed to because of their surname (because it sounded to similar to the Renault Megane car).
PurpleFadesToGreen · 19/02/2022 20:17

I worked temporarily in a local register office a while ago.

I was speaking to the registrars about bonkers names and if they ever disallowed any.
Apparently they couldn't out and out say no, but would offer the parents 10 minutes or so to have a "re-think" and finalise spellings, just in case ...

BotterMon · 19/02/2022 20:35

Fraise is of course strawberry but also another colloquial name for vagina.

Anomalie is an awful name - abnormal

Clafoutis is a cake.

My DH and his brother and sisters were all named after saints. You had to register the birth within 5 days at the time so FIL (RIP) got the job of going to the town hall to do it. He was very religious

LaChatte · 19/02/2022 20:35

I know a girl who goes by Miel (honey) the name was refused at birth as it's masculin, on her birth certificate it say Millicent.
I also know a woman in her 50s called Nathalie, her parents wanted to call he Natacha but I sounded too Soviet and was refused.
I have taught a boy called Tendre-Amour, and a girl called Voluptée, so it really does depend on the registrar.

blameitonthecaffeine · 19/02/2022 21:05

Fraise is of course strawberry but also another colloquial name for vagina

Ah ok, I didn't know that. That makes much more sense; thanks.

BigHuff · 19/02/2022 21:17

@WotgunShedding

What if you wanted to call your child a traditional Chinese name (because you are Chinese) or a traditional Norwegian name (because you are Norwegian) etc?
Yeah, I'm curious about this too. Is it forbidden? No special characters, etc., allowed?
Enko · 19/02/2022 22:28

In the UK our 3rd daughter could not get the Scandinavian name we wanted for her as the ø (o with a line through it) was not on their keyboard. They had the umlaut and ' plus could do å and æ but that last letter they could not do. So they named her Sorine and put a biro through the o.. I hate it on her birth certificate it looks so messy and she was named after my grandfather (the femine version) So when we went to get her Danish passport it felt like such a relief to see it properly.

So whilst technically they didn't say no they kinda did..

In Danish, there is a law you may not give your child a name that will be of hindrance in later life. I think that's a good law. You can appeal it if you disagree with the registrars decision.

Mundra · 19/02/2022 23:57

Those standing against Fleur de Marie- presumably Virginie/Virginia would be allowed?

I was at school with an Anal- it's an Asian name, pronounced like annal.

UserBotLurking9to5 · 20/02/2022 00:42

Just the existence of that law must rein in some of the crazier name ideas. Or maybe not. The people who want to be different always over estimate how well liked the name will be by others I think. They always think other people will admire them for choosing Balonz or Alpine or Milano.

cherrysthename · 20/02/2022 01:26

The parents of 'CR7'...cruel idiots.

mathanxiety · 20/02/2022 06:09

...really? you want a stranger to approve your child's name?

You mean like on the Baby Names board?

garlictwist · 20/02/2022 06:30

@Mushypeasandchipstogo

Some of those banned names are hideous but a friend of mine was told Megan was banned for her daughter as it was a car’s name!
That's not true. I used to teach in France and there were lots of children called Megane.
ZoyaTheDestroyer · 20/02/2022 07:30

@Enko

In the UK our 3rd daughter could not get the Scandinavian name we wanted for her as the ø (o with a line through it) was not on their keyboard. They had the umlaut and ' plus could do å and æ but that last letter they could not do. So they named her Sorine and put a biro through the o.. I hate it on her birth certificate it looks so messy and she was named after my grandfather (the femine version) So when we went to get her Danish passport it felt like such a relief to see it properly.

So whilst technically they didn't say no they kinda did..

In Danish, there is a law you may not give your child a name that will be of hindrance in later life. I think that's a good law. You can appeal it if you disagree with the registrars decision.

You probably already know this but you cannot have any diacritics or ligatures in your name on a UK passport. There is a list of recommended transliterations: ø is transliterated as oe. A friend has a Danish married name and couldn’t have æ on her UK passport.
RaraRachael · 20/02/2022 08:02

I knew of parents, admittedly a long time ago, who wanted to call their daughter Bunty but were told it asn't a real name. So theh called her Jean but she was always known as Bunty.
Names like Ben, Danny, Alfie etc would not have been considered "proper" names when I was young.

QuentininQuarantino · 20/02/2022 08:36

My DC we’re born in Spain and I was a bit worried about this!

Perhaps you remember the Beckham’s we’re living in Spain when Cruz was born, and it being a girls name in Spain, there was controversy over whether or not it would be allowed.

I wanted to give my (english) maiden name to both DC as a middle name, but it’s also a boys first name so I was worried it wouldn’t be allowed, but they were fine with it, perhaps because it was clearly not Spanish…

I almost wish they’d made us choose Spanish names though as the kids are sick of having to explain their english names, but when they were born we didn’t expect to stay.

ThatsNotMyGolem · 20/02/2022 08:43

@RaraRachael

I wish they would do this here. Mind you we always have a good giggle going through the list of new pupils coming in to school and try to choose this year's most ridiculous one Grin

I like to ponder names as much as anyone, but this is pretty harsh. Those are children, and presumably children in your care. It isn't fair to laugh and poke fun at their names with colleagues. It's just not on.

SoupDragon · 20/02/2022 09:27

@RaraRachael

I wish they would do this here. Mind you we always have a good giggle going through the list of new pupils coming in to school and try to choose this year's most ridiculous one Grin
And, time and time again, people on the baby names threads say "of course your child won't be mocked for their name!"
RaraRachael · 20/02/2022 10:04

Oh dear, sorry for daring to have a bit of fun Hmm. Some names are quite frankly ridiculous - we've even have kids called just initials.

We're not laughing at the children in our care - we're laughing at the parents - or is that not allowed either?

DropYourSword · 20/02/2022 10:10

@RaraRachael

Oh dear, sorry for daring to have a bit of fun Hmm. Some names are quite frankly ridiculous - we've even have kids called just initials.

We're not laughing at the children in our care - we're laughing at the parents - or is that not allowed either?

People give their children ridiculous names and then get upset at the inevitable consequences.

Nothing wrong with what you said! It would be very wrong if you ever said anything to the child, or treated them unfairly because of their name, but that's not what you're doing at all.

SoupDragon · 20/02/2022 10:22

@RaraRachael

Oh dear, sorry for daring to have a bit of fun Hmm. Some names are quite frankly ridiculous - we've even have kids called just initials.

We're not laughing at the children in our care - we're laughing at the parents - or is that not allowed either?

You are laughing at the children's names. Don't try to deflect it onto the parents.

If you think mocking people is "fun" then it says a lot about you.

DropYourSword · 20/02/2022 10:34

You are laughing at the children's names. Don't try to deflect it onto the parents.

Yeah, how they hell can this be deflected onto the very people who choose the name