legislating baby names

Since the Wizard has a background in baby name statistics, I thought it'd be interesting to get forum users' opinions on government regulation of baby names. New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs will not permit parents from naming their child "Anal" "Christ" "King" "Prince" "Baron" or "Lucifer". In Germany, parents are prohibited from giving gender-neutral names to their children. Nouns and places are also prohibited in Germany. In Massachusetts, no name may be longer than 40 characters. In 2009 a New Jersey couple lost custody of their boy they had named "Adolf Hitler". Portugal and Denmark force parents to choose from a list of approved names. (France scrapped their list in 1993.) Most countries ban names spelled in foreign alphabets, and many restrict the use of foreign diacritical marks. California bans dots and squiggles.

What do you think?

Even before reading your post, I was thinking about this story:


Frankly, parents should be given a grace period (72 hours?) to change their mind, and give the child a new name without having to go thru major hurdles. If a parent gives their child an unusual name, they the health dept. should contact them prior to the end of the grace period, just to make sure.

Then again, since I have no kids, I have no idea if such a grace period already exists.

That's hard to top! But...

Have you met Marijuana Pepsi Sawyer?

Yeah, I've seen her bio before. She's merely the product of a couple of pot-heads trying to make a statement. And succeeding. Not nearly as funny as Le-a.

Back in my residency days there was a lady whom I followed throughout her pregnancy and when it came time for her to deliver I just happened to be on call. I delivered a healthy 8 pound baby boy, held him up and said, "So Mom, what are you going to name him?" She said, "I'm gonna name him Ashonte Desmonne Neuronte Mc_______." I replied, "Uh, no. I delivered him and have to sign his birth certificate. That means I have veto power over any name you choose. I'd prefer you give him a name that won't prevent him from getting a job in the future." She named him "Aaron". The only life I think that I truly saved in my medical career.

I also had a patient named LoSpermia Hussey.

What constitutes a name anyway?

Check a website or book fo baby anmes for their meanings, and you'll find most names come from adjectives or nouns. Some names are actually adjectives, nouns or attributes. Think of "Hope" or "Prudence," for example.

And don't even bring up last names...

I will be forwarding this story to my mother, who is an SLP. She works with families in the public school preschool program.

She had two twins, named Orangelo and Lemongelo... my mom soon found out they were named after the food... Orange Jell-O, and Lemon Jell-O.

Btw, where is the option in the poll where the kids are taken as wards of the state and the parents are shot in a firing squad?? Not a Beyonce fan, so that's fine to me...

Quote: DrJohn

Back in my residency days there was a lady whom I followed throughout her pregnancy and when it came time for her to deliver I just happened to be on call. I delivered a healthy 8 pound baby boy, held him up and said, "So Mom, what are you going to name him?" She said, "I'm gonna name him Ashonte Desmonne Neuronte Mc_______." I replied, "Uh, no. I delivered him and have to sign his birth certificate. That means I have veto power over any name you choose. I'd prefer you give him a name that won't prevent him from getting a job in the future." She named him "Aaron". The only life I think that I truly saved in my medical career.

I also had a patient named LoSpermia Hussey.

A woman, who went thorough a particulary difficult labor, asked the resident if she could name her son after him. He told her his name was sigmoid.

The baby--- Sigmoid Colon

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Even before reading your post, I was thinking about this story:

The story of Ledasha (Le-a) is almost certainly fake. No child with that name has ever been located, and Livingston Parish, LA is an overwhelmingly white municipality (about 4% Black). The sentence "cause the dash don't be silent" is not even the standard use of the "habitual be", so it is clearly a story made up by someone mocking the vernacular.

I'm as non-politically correct as they come when people are trying to have a serious argument, but the Le-a story is long known to be a pretty racist urban legend.

This thread is funny, but I wish it was just called "discuss silly baby names thread." The name of one's child is, in my opinion, way down on the list of things the government should be deciding.