# Can you name your child anything you want?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-your-child-anything-you-want/320584>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 7, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-your-child-anything-you-want/320584 "2005-09-07T22:32:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-your-child-anything-you-want/320584/21 "2005-09-11T20:19:09Z")

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> [@Spartydog](#):
>
> In the book “Freakonomics” the author talks about a situation where a child was named a name the was pronounced shi-TEED. The name was spelled Shithead.
> 
> So I guess its possible.

Probably an urban legend; it’s an old story to talk about dumb parents - almost always, the allegedly dumbass mother is black - naming their kids things like “Shithead” and “Asshole” because they don’t read well and thought those words were pronounced some other way.

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