Why do some countries regulate baby names?

[pErvinalia]

I wish we'd fucking ban the *ayden names here (aiden, brayden, kayden, hayden, xayden, lakshdlshgayden).

[Bella Fortuna]

I wish we'd fucking ban the *ayden names here (aiden, brayden, kayden, hayden, xayden, lakshdlshgayden).

Fairmayden...

[pErvinalia]

Funnily, don't hear of many Gaydens.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Funnily, don't hear of many Gaydens.

Except Lozzayden.

[Coito ergo sum]

Praise be to the crappy webcam, which glosses over a multitude of sins!

....oh, no... don't cover the sins... :twisted:

[pErvinalia]

forgot Jayden too.

[Coito ergo sum]

I hate the name Jayden as much as I hate the line of names like Shamiqua and Tamiqua.

[Tero]

A Wisconsin woman had a daughter she named Vagina, the kid called herself Gina.

[Pappa]

Yeah, I can understand wanting to preserve languages and stuff, but don't tell me what I can call myself or what I can call my child.

I can't even understand "wanting to preserve languages." Language is cultural. It's like "wanting to preserve southern accents" -- I mean -- they change like the weather. If there is one thing I don't want our government to do is try to "preserve" language, culture, social mores, and the like.

The reason it's so important in some countries is that the "language is cultural" thing works the other way round too: culture is embedded in the languages we speak. When a language dies, a culture does with it.

[Coito ergo sum]

Yeah, I can understand wanting to preserve languages and stuff, but don't tell me what I can call myself or what I can call my child.

I can't even understand "wanting to preserve languages." Language is cultural. It's like "wanting to preserve southern accents" -- I mean -- they change like the weather. If there is one thing I don't want our government to do is try to "preserve" language, culture, social mores, and the like.

The reason it's so important in some countries is that the "language is cultural" thing works the other way round too: culture is embedded in the languages we speak. When a language dies, a culture does with it.

Cultures don't die, though. They change. To "preserve" a culture through mandates is to suggest that the culture people create on their own is inferior or less deserving of existence than the culture people created on their own in a previous time.

I mean -- English went through the transition from Old English to Middle English to Modern English, and endured the Great Vowel Shift and whatnot. If we had language preservationists in play, they'd want us to still speak and write like Beowulf.

Cultures change and eventually what was once our culture is no more. Like life and death, it is part of the way of things. I see no reason to waste a minute forcing people to talk and act in accordance with one culture as opposed to another.

[MrJonno]

Generally in most cases regulation of name isnt really required but the general principle is parents do not have rights over their children, they have responsibilities. One of those is to give them a name that will allow them to function in society. Calling a child Fuckwit Shithead is going to make that somewhat difficult

[Coito ergo sum]

Generally in most cases regulation of name isnt really required but the general principle is parents do not have rights over their children, they have responsibilities. One of those is to give them a name that will allow them to function in society. Calling a child Fuckwit Shithead is going to make that somewhat difficult

Parents do have rights relative to their children, though, even in the UK.

[Bella Fortuna]

You can't name a child in Iceland any name with the letter C in it, since the Icelandic alphabet contains no C. Yet they have an enormous population of English-speakers!

[Coito ergo sum]

You can't name a child in Iceland any name with the letter C in it, since the Icelandic alphabet contains no C. Yet they have an enormous population of English-speakers!

What do they do? Replace all the "c" words with "b?"

[Bella Fortuna]

It gets refused by the Naming Committee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Naming_Committee