New Zealand bans weird baby names
No more wacky baby names for New Zealand mums and dads. But they're not the only ones whose odd choices are being banned...
New Zealand's Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has been cracking down on parents who want to follow in the Beckhams' footsteps by giving their newborns weird and wonderful names.
After being requested by three different sets of parents, Lucifer has recently been added to the ever-growing list of names that are banned in New Zealand. The list includes names such as Baron, Bishop and Mr. because they are considered too similar to titles. However, Number 16 Bus Shelter was apparently A-OK!
In the past two years, a whopping 102 names have been officially deemed too out there. Requests to name newborns C, D, I, T and 89 have been rejected, along with any names involving asterisks, commas and other punctuation marks.
And New Zealand isn't the only country to take action against the growing fad for wacky baby names . In Sweden, the names Superman, Metallica and Elvis have all been disallowed. One set of parents bizarrely wanted to name their baby Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116, pronounced Albin (of course). It was probably a good thing that this request was rejected - imagine the added stress of exams for the poor child who'd have to write out that name at the top of their paper!
So while the bans will only apply to a few creative parents here's a heads up to the Beckhams - avoid having baby number 5 in New Zealand or Sweden!
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