Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Boglebaum here with a classic brain Stuff episode.
Speaker 1: In this one, we discuss the art of baby names.
Speaker 1: The possibilities seem endless, but there actually are some legal
Speaker 1: limits on what you can name a human child. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Choosing a name for a
Speaker 1: tiny human that you've never even met is a big decision.
Speaker 1: There's evidence that your baby's name can influence her future,
Speaker 1: and it can set her apart from the masses. Take
Speaker 1: Magician's pen and Emily Gillette, for example. The duo named
Speaker 1: their baby Sultan, which certainly hints at a future in
Speaker 1: the family business. Then there are celebrity parents who take
Speaker 1: baby naming to an art form. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and
Speaker 1: musician Chris Martin opted for Apple, and power performers Beyonce
Speaker 1: and Jay Z, of course, named their daughter Blue Ivy.
Speaker 1: While kids with unusual names will never under stand the
Speaker 1: joy or annoyance of being known by first name, last initial,
Speaker 1: like me and the other three Loren's in my elementary
Speaker 1: school class, they will spend a lifetime living with their
Speaker 1: unusual monikers. But all those unique names prompt the question
Speaker 1: is there anything you can't name your baby? With the
Speaker 1: breadth of choices in baby name databases, narrowing down a
Speaker 1: selection can seem impossible. But in a smattering of states
Speaker 1: and countries, the choices have been limited for you. There
Speaker 1: are some things that you cannot name a baby. There's
Speaker 1: no universal law governing baby names. The regulations where they
Speaker 1: exist very greatly by country, and the laws of individual
Speaker 1: localities in these countries don't line up cohesively. In the
Speaker 1: United States, for example, state laws restrict parental naming rights
Speaker 1: in a variety of ways. For example, there may be
Speaker 1: restrictions on particular surnames or diacritical marks like accent marks,
Speaker 1: and prohibitions on obscenities, numerals, or pictograms being used. We
Speaker 1: spoke with J. R. Scrap Nick, senior counsel with the
Speaker 1: Snell Law firm in Austin, Texas. He said, generally these
Speaker 1: laws need to comply with the due process clause of
Speaker 1: the Fourteenth Amendment in order to be constitutional, the fourteenth
Speaker 1: Amendment being the one that prevents state laws from infringing
Speaker 1: on citizens nationally guaranteed rights. Those state restrictions are generally
Speaker 1: practical ones, such as requiring only letters of the alphabet
Speaker 1: and not pictograms or symbols. We also spoke with Matt C. Pinsker,
Speaker 1: an adjunct professor who teaches constitutional law at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Speaker 1: He said, for example, in the US, a name entered
Speaker 1: on a birth certificate must be entered in the traditional
Speaker 1: letters of the alphabet and not in the letters or
Speaker 1: symbols of the Chinese alphabet. Other times, names are limited
Speaker 1: in length because of record keeping software. Some states allow
Speaker 1: accents over names, while others do not. For example, Pinsker
Speaker 1: says the accent over the e in Jose is actually
Speaker 1: prohibited by California law. A move to overturn the law
Speaker 1: banning diacritical mark failed in fourteen, in large part because
Speaker 1: adding Spanish accents to birth records could cost state registrars
Speaker 1: and estimated ten million dollars. American naming laws are different
Speaker 1: from those on other continents. Pinsker said. In Europe, parents
Speaker 1: are not allowed to name their children Hitler or Stalin,
Speaker 1: but in America that would violate the freedom of expression.
Speaker 1: Denmark in particular, has some of the most restrictive naming laws.
Speaker 1: In order to abide by the country's law on personal names.
Speaker 1: Parents may select a name from a list of seven
Speaker 1: thousand approved names for both boys and girls, all using
Speaker 1: traditional spellings. To give a child a moniker that is
Speaker 1: not pre approved requires review by government officials. Of the
Speaker 1: estimated one thousand, one hundred names that are scrutinized annually,
Speaker 1: about are rejected. Among the thrown out names anus, Pluto,
Speaker 1: and monkey on the approved list names like Benji, Molly,
Speaker 1: and fee. In some places, names aren't officially banned until
Speaker 1: after a parent chooses a problematic moniker for a child.
Speaker 1: For example, officials in Sonora, Mexico reviewed actual names from
Speaker 1: the states a hundred and thirty two newborn registries a
Speaker 1: banned sixty one of those names, including Facebook, Batman, and RoboCop. Previously,
Speaker 1: the state had no such prohibitions, which means babies legally
Speaker 1: received names such as U. S. Navy, Hitler, and Harry
Speaker 1: Potter before that ban was enacted. For many officials, it's
Speaker 1: less about the names and more about what they represent,
Speaker 1: a potential lifetime of put downs. Sonora State Civil Registry
Speaker 1: Director Christina Ramirez told the Associated Press the law is
Speaker 1: very clear because it prohibits giving children names that are
Speaker 1: derogatory or that don't have any meaning and that can
Speaker 1: lead to bullying. Aside from specific state or county restrictions,
Speaker 1: parents still have access to a considerable variety of names,
Speaker 1: some that are potentially objectionable for reasons ranging from historical
Speaker 1: issues to crude, controversial, or criminal references, which perhaps means
Speaker 1: that the real question prompted here is an A could,
Speaker 1: but I should. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: you Can't Name your Baby that on how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, written by Laurel Dove and brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four
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