Baby names and the law

Yesterday my sister had a baby. Big congratulations to her, her partner and the little one. Prior to the birth, I was chatting with my sister about possible baby names. "Are there any illegal baby names?" she asked me. I thought about it and then said "I don't know". I decided to conduct a little investigation...

I can find no legislation which directly prohibits certain names or types of name. A spokesman for the General Register Office has, however, previously stated that whilst there are no restrictions on the names that parents can give their children, "an official" could refuse to register a name, in an exceptional case, where the name could be deemed offensive. I do not, as at the time of writing, know what form the legislative basis for this proviso takes nor who and how the phrase "deemed offensive" is interpreted. What I do know, however, is that the General Register Office has, in recent years, been happy to register names such as "Superman", "Gandalf", "Gazza" and "Arsenal". It is, therefore, hardly surprising that celebrity parents have been permitted to give their children names such as "Harper Seven" and "Fifi Trixibelle"...

Is the rest of the world as liberal when it comes to the legality of baby names? It would seem not.

Countries such as Denmark, Spain, Germany and Argentina all publish lists of acceptable baby names from which the parents must select. The German authorities, for example, will not allow a baby to be called "Hitler" and have also refused specific requests that children be allowed to be named "Osama Bin Laden", "Stompie", "Woodstock" and "Grammophon".

The Department of Internal Affairs in New Zealand have rejected names such as "Christ" and "Lucifer" whilst also prohibiting parents from naming their children with symbols and numbers. In 2007, the BBC reported that a New Zealand couple had lost a legal battle to name their child "4Real" and so settled on "Superman" instead. A number of other sources I perused revealed that Judges in New Zealand have previously refused permission to name twins "Fish" and "Chips" although did permit the names "Number 16 Bus Shelter" and "Violence". Although my absolute favourite refusal by the New Zealand judiciary has to be for the request that a child be named "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii."

Over in Malaysia, it seems that the Government had to ban the name "Chow Tow" which, when translated into English, means "Smelly Head", whilst a woman in Norway was apparently jailed for 2 days for giving her child an unapproved name.

Finally, a Judge in the United States refused to allow a man to change his name to "God" so the man settled on "I Am Who I Am".

So one thing is for sure. There is certainly no consistency when it comes to which names are permitted and which are not. Should parents be able to call their children anything they want? If not, who should make that decision and what criteria should be applied before a decision is reached?