It's not really a huge deal in continental Europe, but something that has surprised a lot of expats we've met are the Name Laws, particularly if those expats are expecting a baby.
Generally, the name laws are set up to make sure parents don't give their children horrible, weird, embarassing names (so they say...) - or otherwise try to be like celebrities. So, I can get the point. The problem is that sometimes, say, if you're from Bali, you may want to name your child a Balinese name...and chances are that there aren't so many of those on the "approved list"
Apparently, the Danish Name Law is one of the strictest ones around (according to the New York Times). And this hasn't been especially comforting to think about, even when (after scrutinizing the law's entire book-length text) I know that it technically doesn't apply to us since we aren't Danish citizens.
But even if we're technically exempt, we will still have to get a special letter of approval from the local parish which we need to be able to get our name certificate which we need to get an international birth certificate which we need to get a passport for the fetus. Soooooooooo...I just don't want to have to come up with a water-tight, legal argument to bring to the nice little parish person in charge of names to convince them that yes, even though we aren't Danish, our choice of the name Whateveritwillbe is okay because it isn't weird in America.
Because the thing is that we LIKE names that will be weird in America! Like, one of my approval criteria has been something like "Has this been in the top 1000 names, ever?" If the answer is yes, well...then...things aren't looking so good for that name in my mind.
Anyway, I'm just rambling now. The real reason I wanted to write this is because one night when I was freaking out about the minuscule possibility that we would have to defend our choice of Noneofyourbusinessrightnow as a name to some random Danish person, Paul was like, "Well, let's just look at what kind of names are on the list and maybe it will make us feel better."
So, now I present to you some of our favorite officially approved Danish (boy) names:
Generally, the name laws are set up to make sure parents don't give their children horrible, weird, embarassing names (so they say...) - or otherwise try to be like celebrities. So, I can get the point. The problem is that sometimes, say, if you're from Bali, you may want to name your child a Balinese name...and chances are that there aren't so many of those on the "approved list"
Apparently, the Danish Name Law is one of the strictest ones around (according to the New York Times). And this hasn't been especially comforting to think about, even when (after scrutinizing the law's entire book-length text) I know that it technically doesn't apply to us since we aren't Danish citizens.
But even if we're technically exempt, we will still have to get a special letter of approval from the local parish which we need to be able to get our name certificate which we need to get an international birth certificate which we need to get a passport for the fetus. Soooooooooo...I just don't want to have to come up with a water-tight, legal argument to bring to the nice little parish person in charge of names to convince them that yes, even though we aren't Danish, our choice of the name Whateveritwillbe is okay because it isn't weird in America.
Because the thing is that we LIKE names that will be weird in America! Like, one of my approval criteria has been something like "Has this been in the top 1000 names, ever?" If the answer is yes, well...then...things aren't looking so good for that name in my mind.
Anyway, I'm just rambling now. The real reason I wanted to write this is because one night when I was freaking out about the minuscule possibility that we would have to defend our choice of Noneofyourbusinessrightnow as a name to some random Danish person, Paul was like, "Well, let's just look at what kind of names are on the list and maybe it will make us feel better."
So, now I present to you some of our favorite officially approved Danish (boy) names:
- Tuna
- Them
- Ajo
- Legolas
- Alp
- Amen
- Army
- Bi
- Bum
- Texas
- Curd
- Ditz
- Eke
- Eg
- Emo
- Frosti
- Hack
- Ho
- Ion
- Jazz
- Jerk
- Kid
- Law
- Mass
- Math
- Merlin
- Mock
- Miso
- Moowgliie (I don't know...it just makes me laugh)
- Nail
- Neck
- No
- Or
- Oz
- Rejer (it means shrimp?)
- Rot
- Seat
- Slim
- Sic
- Smokey
- Snake
- Snoopy
- Syv (means Seven?)
- Toto
- Turf
- Vile
- Woo
- Yo
- Yoda
- Zippy
So....I'm not that worried anymore.
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