Is there a law in Germany preventing folks from naming their child "Judas"?

[Revtim]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3614247.stm

“3. Germans are not allowed to name their offspring Judas, because of the potential harm it may cause the child.”

Is this true?

[Telemark]

From this site: http://www.babynames.com/boards/showthread.php?threadid=214858

Germany: A Turkish couple who have been living in Germany wanted to name their child Osama Bin Ladin but are not being allowed to do so by the German government. The German government sets certain regulations on the naming of children, such as the name must not be humiliating and must be clearly distinguishable as male or female, and also says that the name must be acceptable in a person’s home country if they are not German. The Turkish government, which has even more stringent laws when naming children, would not allow the name. The couple is now taking their case to court in Germany to protest the law.

Not very definative, but I found the story in several places.

[Mops]

I did not find a cite for the statute, but from time to time there are press reports from time to time on the outcome of lawsuits. From what I gather from these reports:

1. There is no law that bans specific listed first names.
2. The first names of newborn children are registered with the Standesamt (registry office) of the appropriate municipiality. The registry official can refuse to register a particular first name, under guidelines which can be summarized as follows:
   a) the name must be in use in some culture somewhere in the world, i.e. not made up (there is literature on that, and an onomastic consulting office at the University of Leipzig)
   b) the name must not indicate the wrong gender; in case of ambiguity disambiguation with an additional first name is acceptable (a case in point would be e.g. Andrea for a son of Italian-German parents)
   c) the name must not harm the child or expose it to ridicule

The limits on the interpretation of these rules are defined by the case law in the administrative courts.

[kellner]

I don’t know about Judas in particular but yes, you may not give your child “harmful” name. As poited out in Telemark’s quote there are other regulations as well. Basically you need a permission for your name. Usually this is granted if the chosen name is a regular name (for the right gender) somewhere. For “common” names this is not a problem. If your is too uncommon, you have to prove that it is acceptable.

e.g. some time ago a German celebrity wanted to name her son “San Diego”. Originally she wasn’t allow to do so because the “San” was refering to sainthood. Then she argued that the name was not related to saints or the city but that “San” was an established turkish name and there is nothing wrong with the middle name “Diego”.