Should it be illegal to give kids stupid/horrendous names?

[Jabberwock xeno]

No.

Though I do think that any person, child or adult, should be able to legally change his or name at will, no questions asked.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Pilot Inspector
Moon Unit

Actually, Jason Lee named his son Pilot Inspektor. Spelled wrong on purpose.
And Frank Zappa's other kid was named Dweezil Zappa. Not as bad as Moon Unit but still pretty bad.

Eh, I like some of the odd names. Not uber-weird names like Pilot Inspektor but the ones you don't hear often. They're better than having everyone named John or Katey or other boring names like that.

[sub]no offense meant to anyone named John or Katey or other boring names like that.[/sub]

Every child should be named Kefka Palazzo, ok back on topic. I find it funny personally, ever work at a pool in a low income area? Oh the names I have to read, and figure out how to spell.

I am definitely naming my son Kefka Palazzo. Think of how scared shitless anyone who has played FF6 will be when they're around my son. I can see him in day care, He'll be like, "Can I have some juice?" and the teacher will be all, "Please don't kill me and poison the juice supply!!!"

 

[CharrHawk164]

I agree that some names are just cruel and would disturb children for life. However in our society maybe they wont get bullied if enough of them have stupid (in our eyes) names. It's a shame though. I feel sorry for them. I heard a guy who supported Aston Villa (UK football team) named his son Aston Villa. Poor child.

It doesn't help with all these celebrities naming their children ridiculous names too such as Princess, Apple, Peaches etc.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

My mom, now retired from teaching high school, gives standardized tests to 1st graders. I help her out sometimes, and I've been keeping a list for 2 years now of children who will undoubtedly disembowel their parents in exchange for the torment they are sure to experience because of what the idiots named them. This might be because we live among people who would watch Watchmen and the only thought they would have is "Hee hee, he gots a blue wang."(I say watch because nobody in my hometown would pick up a book longer than 20 pages unless there were pictures of naked women in it). Some of the worst offenders include:

Tra'Vesea Tra'Kelsey
Sh'Miricle
Gary'Traveous
Sigfrud
Za'Lieyn (kinda like "Look out! Here comes ze lion!!")
MarQua'Ja

And honorable mention, a friend of mine went to high school with a girl named Sh'Purple.

 

[Vykrel]

if they can get at least 20 or so people to agree that the name will lead to the kid being picked on much worse than other kids because of the name, they shouldnt be allowed to name them something stupid

 

[newdarkcloud]

Illegal... no

HEAVILY discouraged... yes!

 

[Owlsensei]

I think most Doctors step in when they think things are getting a bit daft. But for the most part instead of people going "NO, you can't name your kid that, it's retarded" I think they should just make them aware of the fact that the planned name is retarded. Most people are sensible.

Saying that know I know a family with three little boys called Honor, Courage, and Endeavor...

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

I am not sure where you got the whole "conform to bullies thing" but I am talking about slapping parents from naming their children with forsaken names. In one instance I did mention that horrendous names has a chance of increasing your profile to bullies above the default level, so if you think that your child will be incapable of handling such mental scarring, do him a favor and don't make him stick out.

That isn't conforming..that's camouflage. Some may call it sensible even.

Bottom line: If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Heat is a natural phenomenon. Bullying people however is only anti-social and unacceptable behaviour.

Most civilized societies don't live by the "might makes right" mindset. But you conform to bullies and even try to make their actions seem like natural consequences rather than the despicable and unacceptable behaviour that it is. You basically piss all over ideals like freedom of oppression and the right to live without harassment even if you're somehow different.

I guess you're the kind of person who tell rape victims that they had it coming for dressing "too slutty" or committing the crime of passing out on a couch. Because you're pretty much doing the same thing here.

Somehow you remind me of Alan Harper from "Two and a Half Men". His son wasn't scared of going to school at first, but then Alan proceeds to buy him really ugly shoes (in order to deter bullies from stealing them from Jake) as well as giving Jake money so he can simply give them to the bullies trying to rob him. Basically a philosophy of constantly rolling over and take all the shit that's coming.

That will sure make a kid grow some backbone right? *sarcasm*

 

[Mechsoap]

No.

I find them funny, and wouldn't want them banned for that reason alone.

Exactly. Without ridiculous names, our days would be filled with just a little less pointing and laughing.

And who wants that?

That would be outright villainy!

OT: i know a kid who is named earth... what the f**k is wrong with the parents, naming their kids after a planet?

 

[Mr.Napier]

yes then we wont have Xavies (pronounced Zavis), or Wendelmier.

 

[Burningsok]

There shouldn't be any laws against it. But it does say alot about you when you name your kid something horrendously idiotic.

Now wait, we'll hear about a kid named Something Horrendously Idiotic.

I don't know if I would laugh my ass off or feel sorry for the kid and his/her parents. lol

 

[JezebelinHell]

A quick question related closely to the thread and based on an arguement i had the other week. Does where a name comes from make it bad, or is that solely based on the name. For instance, i think Thane would be a good name because it's quite interesting and i like the way it sounds without it being really really stupid.

My friend however believes it's a bad name, because i got it from a mass effect 2 character. Does anyone have any feelings either way? Not to this specific name, but just to the whole idea of getting names from games/films/whatever (providing they arent ridiculous).

I snagged Aeryn for a girl's middle name from Farscape the first time I saw it on the closed captioning on the show. I have heard of worse than Thane but I am not using Aeryn as a first name. Besides, it gives me my first cheesy, dorky story to hand down. >.<

 

[Red Right Hand]

Apparently if you name your kid an unusual name, they're more likely to commit crime. Come on, who do you think killed that women, friendly Dave or Xeontro?

I'd be more scared of "friendly dave" than Xeontro.

 

[socialtangent]

I think parents need to seriously think over what they name their child. What they want to name their child might not be the best choice for them in the long run. I see why parents would want to give their child a unique name, but when you start making up words, smashing existing ones together, or naming your kids after inanimate objects, ideas, and diseases, you just might be crossing the line.

A child is not a pet or a trophy to give a stupid name to. It is a living, breathing human being who will eventually have to deal with the consequences of being given an awful name. Do I think unique names should be encouraged? Yes. Do I think a kid should be named "4 Real", "@", or "Chlamydia"? No. Should the government have a say in what children should be named? No, but there should at least be some guidelines or perhaps someone that could give suggestions and input at the hospital.

 

[Therumancer]

It's one of those cases where I think something should be done about it, but there is nothing that can be done as any such set of laws would be subjective and rife for abuse.

The big issue of course being that while in cases like naming your kid something stupid like "Venusian Crater" is obvious, all of the same arguements could be applied to very ethnic names outside of their home culture, and that opens all kinds of doors for bigotry. Not to mention that what is a bad name in one case, is not going to be a bad in another. For example "Sue" is a fine name for a girl, but not a good one for a boy.

Laws have to be very specific, and unfortunatly laws can't rely on something as unspecified as "common sense" especially as the world changes.

Perhaps at some point, some lawmaker will come up with a way of making/wording a law that will work for things like this, but I don't think it will happen. The price of scarring one kid for life is low compared to the damage that can be done if laws to prevent that wound up hurting millions of people.

As a side note however, I do think there is some potential here for local laws. See, addressing the issue federally would cause problems by trying to hit everything with too broad of a brush, I think people in a local area could more fairly decide what is a reasonable name for the community. If your in Chinatown for example, a Chinese name is fine, if your in the middle of say Rural Kentucky, well not so much. This itself could lead to abuse but could potentially work since it would allow differant groups of people to use differant standards while avoiding anything too ridiculous.

Another option off the top of my head might also be requiring names to be reviewed and approved by a commitee for example. Not as bad as it sounds, but in the hospital or town clerk's office the handfull of people there who are going to process the paperwork might get a say. Parents should come up with a few potential names, ahead of time, and in most cases I doubt there won't be a problem. I think this will get rid of a lot of stories like the guy filling out the Birth Certificate saying "you know, today we had some parents who named their child [pick stupid thing here] and I couldn't believe it". That guy could instead go "no, really your not naming this kid Moondoggie".

But again as I originally said, I don't think anyone will come up with a universally fair system, as even those ideas have tons of problems, thus I imagine it will never stop.

 

[The_Emperor]

should it be illegal to make threads asking silly questions?

no, neither should any rules be enforced when naming children, if they hate their name they can make up a new one and change it when they are older.

 

[Snake Plissken]

No way, if we create a law like that, we wouldn't get sweet-ass names like "Hendrix Halen Michael Rhodes Wylde".

And are YOU gonna tell

Spoiler: this guy

that he can't give his son that name?

 

[Cavouku]

Actually, in my country, there are plenty of kids' names that are illegal.
It was very normal to call your child "Bjørn" (It's my dad's name) some 30 years back, for example; but now, the government has decided that you can't name children after animals (Bjørn is the Norwegian word for bear, you see)

Personally, I think that's a bit silly. Naming children after animals was pretty common, so there should be no reason to ban that. I still think it's good that we have laws that keep parents from naming their kids "Peaceoshit" though.

Edit: Ok, here's what the law actually says.

You may not choose a name that will be a significant inconvenience to the bearer.

Now I think thats fair. I think it'd be hard for them to enforce and such, due to opinion (aside from obvious things), but sounds right.

Though here in North America (Canada myself), a better law may be something like...

How about we use the middle names to our advantage? Like, your first name has to be something serious, from a great big list with (M) for Male only (F) for Female only and (U) for Unisex or something like that. And then the middle name can be parent's choice. And, bylaw; the middle name is temporary until the age of ten, wherein the child has the right to change it officially. Changing the name after that could fall under the same charge as changing your first name.

Maybe that would do it? Satisfy everyone (though I hate to say that, because it sounds like a cop out).