h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I keep receiving joyous notifications of births from old family friends. Someone has just called their child T'ea, I know a Muffin, a Prada and an Amarni. A friend just announced on Facebook that she is using an amalgamation of her other two children's names to make a new word.

In France you have to pick something that is officially a name from a list.

>>>In France you have to pick something that is officially a name from a list.

Not actually true any more... In years gone by it was a case that 'christian' names had to conform to the saint's days in France (each and every day of the year has it's own saint), but nowadays, you can choose any christian name you want - However, if, when you register the birth, the registrar deems the name 'prejudicial to the child or a third party' he can refer it upwards to a judge, who can in turn, order the parents to choose another name.

... to add something I've just discovered to my last post...

And it appears the judges are _very_ lenient when it comes to letting names go...

Back in 1999 when a Mr and Mrs Renaud registered their newborn daughter with the name Megane, it was referred to a judge, who decided that there was no malice intended and let the parents choice stand.

Hint: If you don't speak the language, the French pronunciation of the surname 'Renaud' is _very_ similar to the pronunciation of a certain French motor manufacturer...



Any guesses as to the nicknames the poor kid must have at school by now.

Was she called Nicole at l'ecole by any chance ?

In Germany it's very similar to how Whisky describes the French system above. In addition, they stipulate that you have to be able to tell the sex of the bearer by their Christian name. Don't know how they apply that to foreigners. I suppose they don't have any say if the child isn't given German nationality at birth.

I have a colleague who is called Leslie. She uses the male spelling, but is a girl. But anyway, she's French, just to confuse things. So I don't know how that passed in France when she was born (she must be about 40).

There shouldn't need to be any legislation or rulings about the names people give their children, but apparently there is.

We put a lot of thought into how our children's names sounded in conjunction with the surname, and used names that we knew all the grandparents would be happy with, that could not be mispronounced, even taking into account as many languages as possible, and that wouldn't stand out, but also wouldn't be in the top ten lists of most popular names given that year.

If we'd given them the names of the saints whose day it was when they were born, we might have ended up with an Arnold, a Rupert and a Virgil. Actually, on reflection, two of those would suit quite well.

Having at various times seen the names Anarchie, Moreton Morton (firstname and surname, seriously), Aurora-Taichi and Porsche I think there really, really should be tighter rules about appropriate names for kids.

"Porsche" - That reminds me of that line in "A Fish Called Wanda".

I like the New Zealand system whereby there isn't an acceptable list but names can be vetoed by officials if they're offensive or likely to lead to ridicule.

I find variant spellings to be the most frustrating parts: I'm assuming Storm's example of T'ea is supposed to be pronounced 'TAY-ah' rather than 'tee'? Which is a nice sounding name, one of my colleagues has called his daughter it but they spell it Tayha. To my mind proper names don't include punctuation and only have one capital letter at the start (surnames can have more) and any departure from that is just stupid.

It comes up in my work: about 80% of the lads have Mohammed as one of their names but there's half a dozen ways of spelling it, if not more. Other very common names also have a load of different spellings and it makes writing letters/reports a guessing game.

Also there should be a rule that states family members must have clearly different forenames: I have a pair, 10 months apart in age, that are the equivalent of Tom and Thom Smith. Some genius put them in the same tutor group just to make it even more difficult.

People who give their kids silly names should have their names changed to “idiot” or have their heads painted green so that all and sundry can identify them for being what they are, first class pillocks

Hmm, I read an article recently claiming that obviously "lower class" names - usually misspellings of luxury brand names - meant that it was much harder for those children to find adoptive parents.

"Oh, and Mr Whatever, what’s your child call ?”, “LG, we were going to called him Panasonic but me and missus couldn’t spell it”

Here is what happens in my state when parents name a son Adolph Hitler:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/19/new-jersey-parents-who-named-child-adolf-hitler-lose-custody-newborn/

I think there would be a bit more than a kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the when poor Adolph grows up and eventually meets his dad

Before today I had no idea that there were countries where a child's name had to be stamped and approved by the government. And I was happier that way.

Me too.

It's bad enough they give us all numbers.

Hey, maybe we should forget all about names
and just use our government issued numbers.

Nah, maybe not; the rich would be able to buy
all the good numbers.

~jwf~

Hey did you know that face recognition software
has developed to the point where you can scan a
face, any face you meet on the street, on your cell-
phone and it'll take you to their Facebook where
you can find their real name, date and (probably)
place of birth and there-by retrieve their social
security number downloaded to your phone. Yep,
there's a an app for that - and it actually works
in 27% of random faces scanned. Google, Apple and
Facebook are currently in a bidding war to acquire
the rights (developed by a University IT guy).

Seems that where there's a face, there's a name and
where there's face and a name there is a number.

~jwf~

I know someone who called their children "Storm" and "Whisky". I know, it is hardly believable, but it's true, so help me bob

No problem. I don't have a facebook page.

If your information is set to, for instance, 'friends only' on facebook, then a random stranger might see your profile picture and name, but nothing more. And you can set those to private too. That way only the people who you have chosen to include as friends can see your information.

Once again, it's not who can access what, it's what you allow them to see.

Also, I don't use my real name on FB so

'lower class names'

There is a class element isn't there? I've just been reading Chavs and feel shamed at the examples I picked.

I was thinking more of the hippy names that my family gave us...I am named (amongst other things) after a Welsh moon goddess and a river in India, my brother who was named after an Indian god (lord of the colours) uses John. I know a real Storm.

I think calling your child Muffin could be considered detrimental....

My husband grew up in France with a name that can't be pronounced in French. he told me you could be exempt from the saint's day thing if you had a family tradition/connection with the name.

There was a study where CVs were sent out that were identical accept for the name; I think Rebecca and Beccie were used. Rebecca got lots more job interviews than Beccie.