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