That’s stupid. By that logic, naming your kid Muhammad wouldn’t be in his best interests, because Muslims are discriminated against in France. Yet Muhammad is a very common Islamic name.
That’s why this kind of law is stupid.
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Of course it doesn’t! Although you are free to assume it to be the case. Many historical names do refer to male or female qualities or instances. But there have been words which refer to both, and some which refer to neither,
I am pretty sure the French don’t have that freedom. Last I heard, an government agency has a list of permitted names for new babies.
I’m glad I don’t live in France then. If I can’t name my kid æ®øn (Pronounced “Billy”, but don’t you dare misspell it!), then I might as well get a vasectomy right now.
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Please, please tell me that the judge said “He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy”.
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I heard once that a couple weren’t allowed to call their child Zebidee as it was deemed cruel. Cruel to the other kids perhaps, growing up and not having a girlfriend because Zebidee is so cool and gets all the attention.
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Obvs. Just look at the title of the OP. Not to mention the post itself.
Meanwhile, the wrestling coach at my high school – and in fact, a fine example of how to be a manly man without being a jerk – was named Lynn. British ancestry, family tradition.
And then there’s Leslie (Nielsen), Robin (Williams), and Stacy (Keach). Funny how it always seems to be British male names that get converted to female names in the States.
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To be fair, there’s also a government agency that creates a list of permitted words in general.
France adds only a handful of new words to their dictionary every year.
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It probably would have cost them a lot of money to not acquiesce, that’s sort of the essence of how the American justice system works. You can name your kid whatever you want as long as you have the money.
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Not sure how this applies:
Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor) on the effeminacy of England
Forceful independance maintaining distance from the mother through denigration?
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Then there’s this guy:
His mother told him that she wanted her first child to be a girl and so she chose the name before she knew the baby’s sex; she likened the name to the character in the Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue”.
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That’s a great find!
Don’t forget Marion Robert Morrison
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Or Alphaville’s Marian Gold.
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Again from Wiki…
Traditionally, most people were given names from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. Common names of this type are Jacques (James), Jean (John), Michel (Michael), Pierre (Peter), or Jean-Baptiste (John the Baptist) for males; and Marie (Mary), Jeanne (Jane), Marguerite (Margaret), Françoise (Frances), or Élisabeth (Elizabeth) for females. In certain regions such as Brittany or Corsica, more local names (usually of local saints) are often used (in Brittany, for instance, male Corentin or female Anne; in Corsica, Ange (suitable both for males and females, French version corresponding to Corsican Angelo, Angela). However, given names for French citizens from immigrant communities are often from their own culture, such as Mohammed, Karim, Saïd, Toufik, Jorge, etc. for males, Fatima, Fatoumata, etc. for females.
You’ll notice that under the old naming laws ( old ) that Muhammad was a perfectly OK name for a child.
However I imagine the French Law makers are pretty quick to stamp on What are felt to be inappropriate names…
Nuttella, ziplok, araldite, cottonbud, gemolene and a host of others would be downright stupid.
Calling a kid after a brand name is fucking weird and if my parents had named me Typhoo or Sunpat I can just about imagine how much worse school would have been…
Just saying 
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Old news story - Parents lose custody of girl for naming her Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii
But ‘Number 16 Bus Shelter’ was okay.
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This one reads as pure victim blaming. If the judge thinks people would harass her over her name, why not punish them instead? Schools typically have policies against teasing and harassment anyway.
Why do white supremacists always look so sickly? Serious question. I find it so weird that their beliefs center on how they’re the pinnacle of human evolution, but they generally seem to look like they’re not very healthy. I’m sure a lot of it is down to poor diet and the attendant problems – including bad teeth – so is there a cause and effect situation going on?
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