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Bizarre baby names: banned in New Zealand
The spawn of Hollywood celebrities will probably want to avoid giving birth in New Zealand in the future. The annoying trend of bequeathing ridiculous names to one's offspring will no longer be tolerated in the island nation, according to CNN.The country's Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages is banning "weird" baby names: the current list includes Lucifer, Duke, Messiah, and 89 (let's hope that's not his/her birth order). Bishop, Baron, General, Judge, King, Knight, and Mr. were said to be too similar to titles. And letters such as C, D, I, and T and names involving punctuation marks? Nope.
In 2008, New Zealand's names registrar approved non-traditional names (there's a set of twins out there named Benson and Hedges). Apparently, circumstances or places of conception were also cool as namesakes. Hence, Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter. But now there's an end to the madness, and hopefully New Zealand will once again become a nation of Liam's and Chloe's.
Fortunately, Sweden (sorry, Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116, pronounced Albin) and the Dominican Republic are getting on board with banning idiotic baby names. In 2007, a Dominican judge banned "Tonton" (Dummy) Ruiz, but only because it was confusing and/or gave no indication of gender.
I'm all for foreign or original baby names (despite to this day being called "Laura/Lauren/Nora/Floral/Coral" on a daily basis). But doesn't it constitute a form of child abuse when you stick your kid with a handle guaranteed to inspire butt-kicking on the playground? You'd better learn taekwando, Bronx Mowgli Wentz.
[Photo credit: Flickr user scherre]
[Via Global Post]
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Learning, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, Sweden, Dominican Republic, United States, New Zealand, News
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
nicoleah Aug 3rd 2011 12:38AM
I worked in my parent's pawn shop in Mississippi in my 20s, and notable names from the shop's files include: Tequila, Bacardi (sisters of course), Lemonjello and Orangejello (twin brothers). Must have been a family tradition to name your child ridiculously in at least one family, as they are all related and share the same last name...
My aunt worked for the Dept of Human Services and noted once that a child's name was Collit Greene. Another one she noted, Vagina (pronounced vah-geena).
I later heard a joke about the jello names, which the teller swore was an urban legend, but I have seen it in print. Proof that folks will name their kids just about anything.
A ban like this will never happen in the US, I believe. The closest we could come would be to ban numerals and symbols, which means, more humans will be urban legends in the form of a punchline.