Thursday, January 31, 2013

A rose by any other name...is not permitted in Iceland

Apparently Iceland, along with Germany and Denmark, have official rules about what names are appropriate for babies.

Bully for them.

These days, parents seem to think that the more "special" the spelling of their offsprings' names, the better. The better to doom their children to a lifetime of correcting spelling and pronunciation, methinks. We'd be better off if we had a few rules for parents to follow:

1. No superfluous, unpronounced "h".
2. No "q" without a "u".
3. No using a "q" where a "k" or "c", or combination thereof, will do.
4. No random capitalization in the middle of a name.
5. No random hyphenation in the middle of a name.
6. No use of symbols for a name. Ever. No matter how rich/talented/special you think you are.
7. No fruit names.
8.  Nothing that will cause your child to voluntarily change his/her name as soon as they are legally able.

What else should be added to the list?

No comments: