Wednesday, September 23, 2009



An Australian baby can be named Metallica, but not Ned Kelly

Both Ned and Kelly are common Irish names. So why is the name suspect to Australian authorities? Ned Kelly was a 19th century highway robber, who defied the police with some success -- something that is rather admired in Australia
"You can call your kid Metallica, Fully Hektik Sik or God Bless, but don't even think about giving him the name Ned Kelly - that would be offensive.

Christian names deemed acceptable and unacceptable by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages provide interesting reading. The Registry can reject a name for a number of reasons under the Registration Act 1995. Reasons include that the name might be obscene or offensive, is too long or includes "symbols without phonetic significance."

The Act also bans official titles, ranks or names "contrary to the public interest for some other reason". Nor can names be a sentence.

Ned Kelly was rejected for public interest reasons, as was Jesus Christ. Post Master General and Chief Maximus were rejected because they are titles.

Other names knocked back included a blank space, the child's Medicare number and the number seven, a name suggested in the sitcom Seinfeld. Titles including Prince, Princess, Dame, Duke, King, Queens and Lady have all been rejected, but Prince, Queen, Lady and Sir are eligible used on their own.

Sweden recently ruled Metallica an acceptable name, along with Budweiser. France and Denmark give citizens a list of names to choose from

In 1980, prior to the Registry being tightened up in 1995, an Australian couple successfully registered their child with the name Monkey. [Now THAT'S a sensitive one. I hope the kid isn't dark-skinned!]

Source

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only reason such a registry should exist is to prevent ignorant parents (like movie stars in Hollywood) from giving their children names that no child should ever have to wear (like Moonbat).

The problem of course is when the people in charge of the lists get out of control (which seems inevitable) and start banning reasonable names.

I know of a young man who's mother tagged him with "Latrine" because she thought it sounded nice and don't get me started on the "Boobs" family who named their daughter Ophelia.

Anonymous said...

Luke Warm
Mary Chris Maas

Anonymous said...

Fat Chance Nail Polish Jack Shi*

Anonymous said...

Mike Hunt

Anonymous said...

Why not have the government assign a name, just like they assign a number? What happens if you don't register a name at all?

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Osama is fine.

Dean said...

Thank goodness there are governments around the world looking out for offensive names. Just think what people would do if they were free to name their children. Why, we'd have kids named Rocky Rhodes, Stormy Knight (I went to school with both), and other such things.

Yup, we need a Big Brother to tell us what is right and what is wrong. We're just too stupid to live life without help.

Well, hmmmmm. Looking at what some movie stars, etc. have named their kids, maybe there is some justification.

Robert said...

And, fortunately if a name like Mike Hawke does turn out to be unbearable, once the child reaches the age of majority he can get it changed.

Anonymous said...

"It's Australia. They should simply call everyone asshole. It works great in Britain and france."

Interesting anon,

I knew a girl in North Carolina who was a native American and a member of the Lumbee Tribe.

Her first name was spelled: Asshole

Her last name was spelled: Shithead

BUT,

Her names were pronounced:

Asholey Shiteed

Bobby said...

Since the names affect the kids, shouldn't they have a right to change them? Maybe after they turn 10?

Anonymous said...

Re: Bobby
Heh, then you'd probably have kids with names like Spiderman Smith, or Batman Jones. :P

Anonymous said...

i wonder if adolph hitler would be acceptable?

Anonymous said...

Sue