NZ cracks down on wacky baby names

19 Jul 2011, 4:27 pm   -   Source: AAP
6 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
6
Got a whacky name in mind for your bub? Don't move to NZ. (Getty)

Got a whacky name in mind for your bub? Don't move to NZ. (Getty)

The New Zealand government is cracking down on baby names it doesn't like, with a whole host of unusual requests knocked back in recent months.

Naming your new bundle of joy Lucifer has been effectively banned by New Zealand's names registrar after three parents had the odd request knocked back.

The country's Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has been cracking down on mums and dads getting too creative with their children's names, ruling out punctuation marks such as . (Full Stop), * (Asterisk) and / (presumably "Slash").

The list of 102 names rejected in the past two years includes Baron, Bishop, Duke, General, Judge, Justice, King, Knight and Mr, all deemed too similar to titles.

Messiah was also turned down, as was 89, and the single letters, C, D, I and T, although q and J were accepted after being queried.

It appears to be a new hard line for the agency that made headlines around the world in 2008 when it was revealed to have approved a raft of strange monikers, among them Benson and Hedges, twins named after the cigarette brand, and Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter, both for boys.

One little girl was so traumatised by her name, Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii, that she had it legally changed at age nine.

In accepting her name change in 2008, Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt said odd names had the ability to scar children as they grew up.

"It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap," he said.

At the time, the authority tried to defend its lax approach by pointing out it had rejected names including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Sex Fruit, Stallion and Twisty Poi, a staple food in Polynesian cuisine.

Somehow Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii just "slipped through", as did Megatron, the name a 22-year-old student officially applied for after reportedly taking too many drugs.

Arrested on methamphetamine charges in 2008, several years after his name change, Megatron admitted to the court his moniker had made it hard to fly under the radar.


 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

...

Hugo - from Melbourne, 10 months ago

Number 16 Bus Shelter has a hard life ahead of him.

Mr

B. - from Brisbane, 10 months ago

I'm crying with laughter. Priceless.

Brett

Brett - from Victor Harbor, 10 months ago

Why do you ask . . . ?

If only

Brendan - from Brisbane, 10 months ago

Now if only they could crack down on all the other child-scarring behaviours inflicted by parents...

Megatron

Brendan - from Melbourne, 10 months ago

Lol!

About time

Wag - from Sydney, 10 months ago

About time these Johns and Georges and Andrews have to go lol

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.