You Can’t Name Your Baby That! The Latest Banned Baby Name List From New Zealand

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

New Zealand has a pretty sane set of rules for the baby names they allow. It can’t be something someone would consider a title (so sorry, no Princes or Princesses if you’re from New Zealand), cause offense (no Anal or Mafia No Fear), or be unreasonably long (no, you can’t name your child Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii—and a kid was actually taken away from her parents after they attempted to name her that). Of course, there are some odd names that did make the cut. Like Violence or Number 16 Bus Shelter. (Seriously, who names their kids that?)

CNN published the list of every name they’d rejected over the past 12 years, along with the number of times someone has attempted the name. The interesting thing is that some of the names, like Duke and Messiah, are actually starting to become more popular here in the U.S.

Would you pick any of these names for your baby? And do you think any of these should be banned worldwide? (I’m thinking 4Real, Anal and any form of punctuation, i.e. *, ., or # deserve a universal ban.)

Justice:62

King:31

Princess:28

Prince:27

Royal:25

Duke:10

Major:9

Bishop:9

Majesty:7

J:6

Lucifer:6

Knight:4

Lady:3

Judge:3

Royale:2

Messiah:2

T:2

I:2

Queen:2

II:2

Sir:2

III:2

Jr:2

E:2

V:2

Justus:2

Master:2

Constable:1

Queen Victoria:1

Regal:1

Emperor:1

Christ:1

Juztice:1

3rd:1

C J :1

G:1

Roman numerals III:1

General:1

Saint:1

Lord:1

. (full stop):1

89:1

Eminence:1

M:1

VI:1

Mafia No Fear:1

2nd:1

Majesti:1

Rogue:1

4real:1

* (star symbol):1

5th:1

S P:1

C:1

Sargent:1

Honour:1

D:1

Minister:1

MJ:1

Chief:1

Mr:1

V8:1

President:1

MC:1

Anal:1

A.J:1

Baron:1

L B:1

H-Q:1

Queen V:1

Should You Be Able to Name Your Baby Hashtag?

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

Here in the U.S., we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And also the right to name our kids anything we want. But I’m thinking the Founding Fathers weren’t imagining a brave new world where people didn’t name their kids Martha and George and Thomas, but picked names like Lemonjello, Loser, or the current crowning achievement in baby names—Hashtag.

Poor baby Hashtag Jameson (a girl) was born to parents who apparently adore Twitter—and gave her the unfortunate symbol name, one that’s bound to give her future therapist plenty to work with. She’s part of a trendlet toward social media-related names, along with an Egyptian boy named Facebook, and an Israeli girl named Like (as in Facebook’s popular “Like” button).

Several countries around the world have laws against giving your child a truly odd name that others might consider stupid or crazy. They helped prevent babies in Sweden from being named Superman or Ikea, a baby in China from getting @ as a name (which may be one of the few names that’s actually worse than Hashtag), and a kid in New Zealand from the unfortunate name “Sex Fruit.” Maybe it’s time to consider something like that here, to prevent names that might actually cause your child harm and bullying. Names like Destiny Frankenstein, Adolf Hitler, or Dom Perignon.

Of course, that would make my work a whole lot less interesting—and leave celebrities with very few naming options, as they’ll no longer be afforded the options of Moxie Crimefighter, Pilot Inspektor or Moon Unit.

What do you think of the name Hashtag? Do you think we should try to thwart parents’ attempts at name creativity, or simply go with the flow? Let me know in the comments.

Photo: Hashtag, by iQoncept / Shutterstock.com