What Can't You Name Your Baby?

The possibilities for a baby's name aren't quite as endless as they seem -- some national and local governments restrict what you can legally name your baby. Learn what some of those restrictions are (and why they exist) in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogelbaum here, Choosing a name for a tiny human
that you've never even met is a big decision. There's
evidence that your baby's name can influence her future, and
it can set her apart from the masses. Take Magician's
pen and Emily Gillette, for example. The duo named their

(00:23):
baby Sultan, which certainly hints at a future in the
family business. Then there are celebrity parents who take baby
naming to an art form. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician
Chris Martin opted for Apple, and power performers Beyonce and
jay Z, of course, named their daughter Blue Ivy. While
kids with unusual names will never understand the joy or

(00:43):
annoyance of being known by first name, last initial, like
me and the other three Lauren's in my elementary school class,
they will spend a lifetime living with their unusual monikers.
But all those unique names prompt the question is there
anything you can't name your baby? With the breadth of
choices in baby name databases, narrowing down a selection can

(01:05):
seem impossible, But in a smattering of states and countries,
the choices have been limited for you. There are some
things that you cannot name a baby. There's no universal
law governing baby names. The regulations where they exist very
greatly by country, and the laws of individual localities in
these countries don't line up cohesively. In the United States,

(01:26):
for example, state laws restrict parental naming rights in a
variety of ways. For example, there may be restrictions on
particular surnames or diacritical marks like accent marks, and prohibitions
on obscenities, numerals, or pictograms being used. We spoke with J. R. Scrabink,
senior counsel with the Snell Law firm in Austin, Texas.
He said, generally, these laws need to comply with the

(01:49):
due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in order to
be constitutional, the fourteenth Amendment being the one that prevents
state laws from infringing on citizens nationally guaranteed rights. Those
state restrictions are generally practical ones, such as requiring only
letters of the alphabet and not pictograms or symbols. We
also spoke with Matt C. Pinsker, an adjunct professor who

(02:11):
teaches constitutional law at Virginia Commonwealth University. He said, for example,
in the US, a name entered on a birth certificate
must be entered in the traditional letters of the alphabet
and not in the letters or symbols of the Chinese alphabet.
Other times, names are limited in length because of record
keeping software. Some states allow accents over names, while others

(02:32):
do not. For example, Pinsker says the accent over the
e in Jose is actually prohibited by California law. A
move to overturn the law banning diacritical marks failed in twoteen,
in large part because adding Spanish accents to birth records
could cost state registrars and estimated ten million dollars. American

(02:52):
naming laws are different from those on other continents. Pinsker said.
In Europe, parents are not allowed to name their children
Hitler or Stalin, but in America that would violate the
freedom of expression. Denmark in particular, has some of the
most restrictive naming laws. In order to abide by the
country's law on personal names, parents may select a name
from a list of seven thousand approved names for both

(03:13):
boys and girls, all using traditional spellings. To give a
child a moniker that is not pre approved requires review
by government officials. Of the estimated one thousand, one hundred
names that are scrutinized annually about are rejected. Among the
thrown out names anus, Pluto, and Monkey. On the approved
list names like Benji, Molly, and Fee. In some places,

(03:36):
names aren't officially banned until after a parent chooses a
problematic moniker for a child. For example, in officials in Sonora,
Mexico reviewed actual names from the states a hundred and
thirty two newborn registries and banned sixty one of those names,
including Facebook, Batman, and RoboCop. Previously, the state had no

(03:57):
such prohibitions, which means babies legally received names such as U. S. Navy, Hitler,
and Harry Potter before that ban was enacted. For many officials,
it's less about the names and more about what they represent,
a potential lifetime of put downs. Sonora States Civil Registry
Director Christina Ramirez told the Associated Press the law is

(04:18):
very clear because it prohibits giving children names that are
derogatory or that don't have any meaning and that can
lead to bullying. Aside from specific state or county restrictions,
parents still have access to a considerable variety of names,
some that are potentially objectionable. For reasons ranging from historical
issues to crude, controversial, or criminal references, which perhaps means

(04:40):
that the real question prompted here isn't a could, but
a should. Today's episode was written by Laurie L. Dove
and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this and
lots of other unique topics, visit our home planet, how
stuff Works dot com