I agree that this concept is totally foreign to Americans, but is it really so outrageous? Seems like some parents think of naming their child as a way of expressing their creativity (like deciding what to put on their vanity plates), and perhaps that’s exactly why such laws aren’t such a bad idea. Name your cat Spock if you like…someone should intervene, though, if you’re about to name your kid that!
yours,
Moon Unit
Apparently it traumatized neither Dr. Spock nor Mr. Spock. 
I find the larger concept to be upsetting- no state should have the right to interfere with what a family choses to do with naming their child. To impose rigidly defined parameters and approved names smacks of Facism.
It really does.
My two cents.
Cartooniverse
Actually in Iceland Bob and Sue kids would be named Jack Bobson and Jill Bobdottir.
If fascism is a matter of others making choices that one should make for oneself, then the whole business of naming children is in itself fascist. From the parent’s perspective, it seems “fascist” for the state to approve names, but from the kid’s perspective, what difference does it make whether the state or the parent gets the final say? In either case, the kid’s got no choice at all. Fascism!
:rolleyes: The kid lacks the mental capacity to make a decision, so the comparison doesn’t work. Kids can change their names later in life.
I did name my cat Spock, thank you very much (what do you want, I was 10, I was dumb, she had pointy ears!).
As much as I’m all for common sense in name-choosing, I do believe any infringement on the parents’ right to choose the name of their own child is a step in a direction we do not want to take as a society.
And my parents named me Antares.
My name might be considered gender-misleading in Denmark. The hell with that.
The comparison works perfectly, Marley, if I do say so myself.
I guess I understand the aversion to the government sticking its nose in one’s business, but in a hypothetical case where we’re weighing the harm that comes from a microscopic infringement of one’s liberty (a curtailment of one’s right to name your kid something completely ludicrous) versus the harm that comes from a kid getting his ass kicked at school every day because his parents thought it would be a gas to name him Spock or Adolph or Cocksucker, for that matter…um…I think I’d risk the former over the latter. What are we defending, exactly, when we defend the right of a parent to treat their kid like a pet, forcing them to bear an idiotic name for years and years because the parents want to let their freak flags fly?
Of course, in our unamerican fascist country that’s more difficult as well. Your change will only be approved if you can show that your present name causes you unacceptable problems. Even then it can cost hundreds of Euros. Often they will just believe you if you claim that your name causes some mental problem, but there is no general right to change your name - and you are certainly not allowed to change it on your own.
How exactly are we evaluating that harm? When unusual names are commonplace, they are no longer weird and the risk to the kid is minimal. I never saw a kid get beaten up over his name.
We’re defending the increasingly outmoded concept that not everything is the government’s business.
Most dumb names, in my opinion, do not result from parents treaing their kids like pets or letting their freak flags fly. It’s just the desire - often totally ill-expressed and mistaken - to give the kids some individuality. The impulse should not be reproached. The fault is one of common sense, and I don’t think of the government as an entity that brings common sense to society.
When you think about it, aren’t all names made up?
I haven’t heard of such a rule. There would not be a pressing reason for it was we Germans tend not to synecdochically refer to Nazism through the person of Hitler to the extent that this seems to be usual in the English-speaking world. It’s not a common first name but neither a very uncommon one.
The difference might be one of framing. I think a lot of Europeans consider government an agent of society, i.e. not “them” imposing “their” will on “us”, but “us” imposing “our” will, through government, on some of us.
Well, shouldn’t it be that way. After all, what else do you expect someone to connect with the name?
{This silly joke brought to you thanks to the misspelling by Cartooniverse. For the humor impaired: it’s a play on “connect the name to the face.”}
tschild, “synecdochically” – there’s a word you don’t here every day, especially used correctly. Excuse the hijack, but since you said you are German your sophisticated English vocabulary has piqued my curiosity about when you learned English and how you’ve developed your abilities to such a degree. I say this as your not atypical monoglot American – a few years of a couple of foreign languages in high school and college, but no fluency in any. The truly bi- or multi-lingual always impress me no matter how common they may be in the rest of the world.
tschild, “synecdochically” – there’s a word you don’t hear every day, especially used correctly. Excuse the hijack, but since you said you are German your sophisticated English vocabulary has piqued my curiosity about when you learned English and how you’ve developed your abilities to such a degree. I say this as your not atypical monoglot American – a few years of a couple of foreign languages in high school and college, but no fluency in any. The truly bi- or multi-lingual always impress me no matter how common they may be in the rest of the world.
Oops – sorry for the double post – thought I stopped the first one in time to correct it without that happening.
Interesting insight. I do not believe I have the right to tell my neighbor what to name their child, but you believe you do? And since you don’t have the time to check everyone’s birth certificate you let some gov’t agency take care of it for you? Have I got that explained correctly? And out of curiousity, how do you determine which part of your society, the “some of us,” needs help in naming their child?
I’m sorry, I still can’t comprehend that level of interference in my private life. Yes, some American children have stupid names. And they’re subject to ridicule. But we don’t think it’s the gov’t’s role to protect its citizens from ridicule.
I’m not trying to slam your society, I’m trying to understand it, and that may be beyond my capabilities based on my realm of experience. Do Europeans think Americans have “too much” freedom?
Does the name Hitler still exist in Germany ? If so, it would be horrifying to have a boy named Adolf.
I don’t perceive this at all as an infringgement on parent’s rights, but at the contrary as a protection of children’s right not to be harmed by parents abusing of their authority.
The name is the kid’s name. Not the parents. So, ok, the parent get to choose since a newborn could hardly do it himself. But they’re supposed and expected to make decisions on his behalf that are in his best interest, not harmful to him. If they prove they aren’t able or willing to do so, I’ve no problem with the state stepping in and protecting the kid against the parents’ will. The children rights matter, the parents’ right don’t really matter.
Contrary to what you may believe, we don’t have a lot of Dingbat Juniors running around here in the States. You may get the occassional name that makes you go :dubious: , but by and large most parents are not out to “get” their child by naming them something completely bizarre. We’re more concerned with parents who sell their kids for crack or lock them in the basement for weeks with nothing but Triscuits to eat.
In any event, here in the US what parents decide to name their child is none of the gov’t’s business. YMMV and probably does.
