Devil, V8, Anal, Christ: these are among the baby names
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by New Zealand"s department of internal affairs, who recently
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a
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list of those disallowed by registrars in the past ten years.
Few decisions are more
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than the naming of offspring. Yet laws
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the choice of both first names and surnames are not
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around the world. Denmark expects new parents to choose from a register of acceptable names; Portugal lists banned and approved ones. German registrars prohibit the use of most nouns and place-names, and also frown
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any that do not clearly imply a gender: bad luck, Kim.
Governments argue that these rules prevent children being
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with absurd names that may cause them problems in later life. They also aim to block names that might cause
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to others. In 2009 a couple in New Jersey lost custody of a boy they had named Adolf Hitler.
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concerns play a role, too. Government databases may struggle with long names: New Zealand allows 100 characters for all first names; the state of Massachusetts has a
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of 40 for each. Chinese face a particular difficulty: their language has tens of thousands of characters, but a name that uses
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or rare ones can mean computer problems.
Whether these decisions make any difference is another matter. A study in 2002 suggested that individuals may be influenced by their first names, without even being
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of it. A disproportionate number of girls named Georgia live in the American state that
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their name; boys named Dennis may be slightly
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likely to become dentists than those called Walter (and Georges seem to have a
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for geology). Academics with surnames in the
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half of alphabet are more likely to get good university jobs (the authors of papers are listed alphabetically). Ballot papers that list politicians" names that way also show a
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effect.
But reinvention beckons. Britain"s chancellor was born Gideon Osborne; aged 13, he became George. The UK Deed Poll Service, a legal firm, in 2011 helped 60,000 Britons rename themselves (fees start at ￡33, around $50); it was only 5,000 a decade before. American courts report similar trends. Some such applicants may wish to
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their parents" expectations, while others may regret they were not given a more
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name.
A．live up to B．break away from C．fall short of D．go contrary to