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In my numerous years of research, I have found that Iceland, a country of less than 300,000 people, has some of the strictest naming laws you will find anywhere. They want to preserve their language and culture as there are so few Icelanders. I find their naming customs fascinating.

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Most Icelandic people don't have surnames likely most other cultures. Children are usually given a first name and one middle name. Their third name is made up of their father's first name with "son" or "dóttir" attached to the end of it. For example, Jón and Ásta have two children, a boy named Einar Magnús and a girl named Anna Kristín. Their full names would be Einar Magnús Jónsson (son of Jón)and Anna Kristín Jonsdóttir (daughter of Jón). Therefore, a family living in the same house and made up of a father, mother, son and daughter can potentially have completely different "third names" (mostly patronymic in nature).

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Due to the fact that a majority of women are single mothers, sometimes the children take the mother's name (matronymic). There are other variations but I won't go into them.

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There are strict rules for first and middle names. A name must not cause any ridicule or embarrassment for the child. A name must adhere to the gender that is assigned at birth and follow the rules of the Icelandic language. It also must be on a national registry or, if not,it must be submitted to the Naming Committee for approval (I wouldn't mind having that job).

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Icelandic names can come from many sources: Old Norse mythology, mountains and volcanos (Katla & Hella for girls), glacier (Jökull), ice & fire (Íseldur) etc...obviously, nature plays a huge part in the naming process.

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I'll stop there before I write a book on the subject.

In Quebec, there is no law as in you don't havbe to adhere to a specifice naming pattern. But the registry of Civil Status can intervene in the choice of the first name given to a child, if it's an unusual first name which lends itself to ridicule or is likely to hinder a child in its developpment.

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That being said, the Civil Status registry has a weird view of what is considered a ''subject of ridicule''. It seems all quite subjective. The most well-known case is the ''Spatula'' case. The name ''Spatula''was refused has a given name and it was all over the news when it happened. That was maybe 25 years ago. But a few years later the name ''Goldorak'' (French version of the 70's anime Grendizer) was approved, as well as the name ''Sushi'' (I went to high school with Sushi and it was her true given name).

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I am not against the idea to regulate ridiculous names, in fact I do think being named something like ''Spoon'' can create problems in a childs' life. But it seems arbitrary in what is considered ridiculous or not. Believe me, the girl named Sushi... I went to high school with her. I know today she goes by ''Sue'', and I bet it's easier for her to get a job or go to a bank with that name. Why was ''Spatula'' refused, but not ''Sushi''?

This message was edited 5/30/2024, 9:15 AM

I don't think my country has any strict laws, other than stuff like "it must use the Latin alphabet" and it just can't handle special accents. It's not that they aren't allowed, the system just doesn't want to figure out how to incorporate other language's syllabics. There was a news story about that a few years ago, where an Indigenous baby's name was put into the system incorrectly because vital stats doesn't recognize multi-part first names and indigenous syllabics.

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I think my government should try harder to incorporate multicultural naming styles, especially since they loudly congratulate themselves for being so respectful of diversity.

There are no naming laws as such in South Africa. A child's birth must be registered, given name and surname must appear on the birth certificate, and that's it. Indigenous languages often don't distinguish between ordinary words and personal names. Afrikaans-speaking South Africans used to feel free to give their children politically meaningful names, but that custom seems to have died out. An example: in the late 19th century, diamonds and gold were discovered in inland South Africa, mostly inhabited by Afrikaans farmers who needed enormous farms for their stock; not enough water to grow most crops. Of course, they employed black South Africans and paid very small wages. The coastal provinces were British colonies; naturally, the British government wanted to get its hands on the gold, tried by peaceful means which the Afrikaans people understood perfectly and decided to fight. There was only ever going to be one winner ... the men would be off fighting, leaving their women and children at home, where the British troops rounded them up and put them into concentration camps so that they couldn't provide supplies for their soldiers. The camps were surrouded by barbed wire, in Afrikaans 'doringdraad', and some little girls born in these camps were given political names, one of the worst being Doringdraadina. This was allowed, but would never be used today: its time has passed. There were other similar names, but I've lost my list!

I found this on the internet...
The United States has few laws regulating baby names, and they vary by state. Some states may limit the types of names that can be given, such as banning names that contain obscenities, numerals, or symbols. Other states may not allow common names, such as "José" or "Lucía". Some regulations may also seem contradictory, such as a state law that implies a surname can be chosen by both parents.

The United States doesn't have any naming laws that I know of, but there are certain restrictions in some states, like no accents or hyphens. I'm thinking they could probably outlaw *really* stupid names, like Robocop or Sex Fruit.