What’s in a name?

Banned names

A few countries ban a number of names for different reasons. Some bans are designed to protect children. For example, you cannot name your child Harry Potter, Hermione, Hitler or Batman. This was done in an effort to prevent children from being bullied or mistreated.
Some countries have naming rules based on cultural or religious reasons.
Although in the UK, rules on baby names are among the most liberal in the world, recently a mother in Wales tried to call her new born baby Cyanide, but was banned from doing so by the Court of Appeal. Despite her arguments that Cyanide was a ‘lovely, pretty name’ the court ruled that the ‘unusual’ choice might harm the child growing up.
Russia's current legislation does not prohibit giving names that violate the children’s interests or rights. Presently employees at Russian registry offices must accept any name suggested by parents, even if this name is insulting, unpronounceable or just plain weird. Also, no Russian law can limit the parents’ imagination in choosing baby names.
But the Civil Code reads: “The citizen’s name is understood as a means of individualization that cannot be comprised of figures, numerals, symbols in any combination, abbreviations, explicit words and cannot contain indications on official ranks or positions.”²
No more ‘Lucifers’: Senator proposes tough restrictions on Russian children’s names. In a bid to prevent parents from giving unusual and weird names to their children, a veteran Russian senator has drafted a bill defining a personal name and introducing the rules under which they can be officially registered.
Another part of the bill is an amendment to the Law on Civil Acts that would forbid state bodies to register names that do not comply with the listed limitations.
In an explanatory note attached with the bill, Petrenko wrote that her primary objective was not to limit the parents’ right to choose the name for their child, but to find some way to establish a legal balance between this right of the parents and the rights of the child.
This has already resulted in many unusual names and Petrenko gave several examples in her note. In 2002 a Russian couple named their son BOChrVF260602 – the abbreviation for “Biological Object Human from Voronin-Frolov Family born on 26.06.2002.” Moscow bureaucrats refused to register the baby under this name, and when the parents appealed to the court, it sided with the authorities. As a result, the boy lives without documents to this day. A more recent example is the 2014 case in which a baby boy was actually registered under the name “Lucifer” in the city of Perm. Other unusual names chosen by Russian parents since 1998 include “Nikolai-Nikita-Nil,” “Dolphin,” “Princess Daniella,” “Luka-Happiness Summerset Ocean” and others.
Petrenko emphasized in her bill that every person including small children has a constitutional right to a name and this right should get legal protection.
Russian law currently allows citizen to change their names, but they must be 14 or older to do this. There are no restrictions on choice and all that is required is a written request and the official birth certificate with the applicant’s original name in it.
To become law, the bill will have to be passed by the Lower House of Parliament (the State Duma), in three readings, then approved by the Upper House (the Federation Council) and signed by the president and published.