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ArchivesHard to believe? Naming laws still exist today...
While surfing the 'net, I came across this news article, dated June 6, 2001, which appeared in the online version of *The Prague Post*: *********************************************************
Parents to decide what's in a name
Change in law will finally permit families to select 'second,' or middle, names
By Kate Swoger
Soon, little Unidentified, a baby girl living in Kokasice, west Bohemia, will have a new identity. She will become Yaa Rosalie.
But until July 1, when a law that has forbidden middle names for half a century is revised, the three-month-old girl will remain nameless in the eyes of the state.
Unidentified's parents, Barbora Kurcova and Petr Hajek, are angry that the government has interfered with their name choice.
"The state has no right to decide about anything regarding our child," Hajek fumed. "To forbid giving names that parents choose for their child is trampling on basic human rights."
The newborn's identity problems began when her parents' independent spirit collided with inflexible government bureaucracy.
Under a law that has governed babies' names since 1950, names like Yaa Rosalie are forbidden unless hyphenated. Moreover, child names are subject to the approval of a government-appointed expert, Miroslava Knappova, who has compiled a "blue book" of about 20,000 acceptable existing names, both Czech and foreign.
When government clerks balked at Yaa Rosalie, Hajek refused to sign the birth registry forms. As a result, his paternity has not been recognized and so the baby simply bears her mother's last name, Kurcova, for now.
Rules about what parents can call their offspring exist to protect children from ridicule, explained Jiri Hajek, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
"Of course, there are people who are reasonable and pick a name like Yaa Rosalie," he said. "But at the same time there are people who are not so reasonable and want to name their child Jagr because they are mad about hockey."
Jiri Hajek notes that while middle names are not officially recognized by the state, parents can informally pick one. His "unofficial" middle name, he says, is Frantisek.
Laws regulating what parents can name their children exist elsewhere, including France, Italy, Germany and Canada.
But the nameless newborn's father deplores the idea of a faceless bureaucrat regulating baby names.
"Somebody sitting at their desk and deciding about what people should be named smacks of totalitarianism to me," said Petr Hajek, who has filed a complaint with the state ombudsman.
He and Kurcova put a lot of thought into their name choice, he said. He chose the name Yaa and Kurcova picked Rosalie.
"[Yaa] means 'a daughter' or 'little' in ... Esperanto. That's one reason why I like it. The other is that when you pronounce it, it sounds like the Czech word ja [I, me]," he said.
Kurcova chose Rosalie because the night before she gave birth she performed an old Indian ritual in which she cooked boar meat on rose hips. Petr Hajek was also reading Sleeping Beauty that night. In Czech, the fairy tale is called The Princess of the Rose Hips.
When their daughter grows up, she can use the name she likes best, Petr Hajek explained.
Her parents will return to the birth registry to get the official stamp of approval for Yaa Rosalie after July 1.
But Petr Hajek doesn't think the planned change to the law is much of an improvement. A child named Yaa Rosalie Patty would not be allowed, for example.
"It's as stupid as the old one," he said. "The only difference is that it forbids three given names instead of two."
***************************************************************
Funny thing, but "Yaa" isn't an "Esperanto name". It's not even an Esperanto word.
-- Nanaea
Parents to decide what's in a name
Change in law will finally permit families to select 'second,' or middle, names
By Kate Swoger
Soon, little Unidentified, a baby girl living in Kokasice, west Bohemia, will have a new identity. She will become Yaa Rosalie.
But until July 1, when a law that has forbidden middle names for half a century is revised, the three-month-old girl will remain nameless in the eyes of the state.
Unidentified's parents, Barbora Kurcova and Petr Hajek, are angry that the government has interfered with their name choice.
"The state has no right to decide about anything regarding our child," Hajek fumed. "To forbid giving names that parents choose for their child is trampling on basic human rights."
The newborn's identity problems began when her parents' independent spirit collided with inflexible government bureaucracy.
Under a law that has governed babies' names since 1950, names like Yaa Rosalie are forbidden unless hyphenated. Moreover, child names are subject to the approval of a government-appointed expert, Miroslava Knappova, who has compiled a "blue book" of about 20,000 acceptable existing names, both Czech and foreign.
When government clerks balked at Yaa Rosalie, Hajek refused to sign the birth registry forms. As a result, his paternity has not been recognized and so the baby simply bears her mother's last name, Kurcova, for now.
Rules about what parents can call their offspring exist to protect children from ridicule, explained Jiri Hajek, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
"Of course, there are people who are reasonable and pick a name like Yaa Rosalie," he said. "But at the same time there are people who are not so reasonable and want to name their child Jagr because they are mad about hockey."
Jiri Hajek notes that while middle names are not officially recognized by the state, parents can informally pick one. His "unofficial" middle name, he says, is Frantisek.
Laws regulating what parents can name their children exist elsewhere, including France, Italy, Germany and Canada.
But the nameless newborn's father deplores the idea of a faceless bureaucrat regulating baby names.
"Somebody sitting at their desk and deciding about what people should be named smacks of totalitarianism to me," said Petr Hajek, who has filed a complaint with the state ombudsman.
He and Kurcova put a lot of thought into their name choice, he said. He chose the name Yaa and Kurcova picked Rosalie.
"[Yaa] means 'a daughter' or 'little' in ... Esperanto. That's one reason why I like it. The other is that when you pronounce it, it sounds like the Czech word ja [I, me]," he said.
Kurcova chose Rosalie because the night before she gave birth she performed an old Indian ritual in which she cooked boar meat on rose hips. Petr Hajek was also reading Sleeping Beauty that night. In Czech, the fairy tale is called The Princess of the Rose Hips.
When their daughter grows up, she can use the name she likes best, Petr Hajek explained.
Her parents will return to the birth registry to get the official stamp of approval for Yaa Rosalie after July 1.
But Petr Hajek doesn't think the planned change to the law is much of an improvement. A child named Yaa Rosalie Patty would not be allowed, for example.
"It's as stupid as the old one," he said. "The only difference is that it forbids three given names instead of two."
***************************************************************
Funny thing, but "Yaa" isn't an "Esperanto name". It's not even an Esperanto word.
-- Nanaea
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