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Monday, March 19, 2012

An Illegal Name?

I've been busy writing away on a story lately (between cleaning up barf- see previous post), and developed a new character. As all characters in a story, it needed an name. The typical Bill or Steve wasn't fitting either so I turned to my number one helpful tool, Google.

Looking over the links I found an article that was titled 10 Illegal Baby Names. Yes, I had to read this. It started out mentioning at the beginning of 2011, the Pope declared war on naming babies after celebrities, fruit, or popular sports cars. In an address to parents he asked that when thinking of baby names, they should 'give your children names that are in the Christian calendar'. Here's a link to the original article where it goes on to talk about what names are illegal in what countries.10 Illegal Baby Names

Good thing I'm not Catholic, because I highly doubt he would have agreed to my last baby's name.

I agree that some of the names mentioned were bad but then some were fine. Reasoning's for these authorities rejected the names because; they cause offence, could cause the child to have self esteem issues and/or insecurity, weren't keeping with religious traditions of their country, or in the case of Germany, if the name doesn't clearly show if the child is a boy or girl it isn't allowed. Boy, that one would be a problem here. I know quite a few names that started out for boys then used for girls and vise versa.

In Japan, the name Akuma was rejected because it means Devil. I don't know if I would want to name my child after Lucifer but to each their own. But, what about the couples that name their child after Christ? I don't personally know of any people name "Christ" but I do know a Jesus (Spanish pronunciation Hay-Seuss).

Personally, I like original/unique names. I also like classic ones like Charlotte, Olivia, Benson, and Mathew.My husband and I chose unique names (to us) but spelled them as they sounded. That was another reason names were refused. creative spelling. Our reasoning was so who ever saw the name could pronounce it correctly. But you know what. My son, Dominic, still gets the occasional Dom-a-nique.

If America ever adopted this I think there would be a lot of citizens getting name changes. With that, I want to tell my children, Seth, Dominic, Paisley, and Riot I hope you enjoy your names.  





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