Are there laws governing what parents can name their children?

[celtic owl]

For the most part, in the US, the naming of children falls under the purview of the right of free speech.
The only restrictions I'm aware of in this country is a ban on numerals and symbols.
That's why Chad Johnson, who wanted to change his surname to his jersey number (86) had to spell the name out in Spanish to get it approved (Ochocinco).
There have been a few attempts for names like THX 1138 (a movie reference) and # but the baby named # actually had to be called Hashtag.

The main reason for not allowing numerals or symbols lies in standard reporting indices (indexes).
SSA and IRS computers, along with most government agencies are not equipped to handle numbers and symbols in names.
In fact, federal computers don't even handle hyphens well so numerals and symbols are just not allowed.

On the flip side, there was a girl in Iceland who wanted to use the name given to her by her mother.
Mom named her Blaer (meaning "light breeze") but that isn't on the list of 1,853 approved female names in Iceland.
She was always called Stulka which is a generic term in Icelandic for "girl".
Recently, she won her court case and is being allowed to use her name.

There are times when I would agree with your feelings but the other side of the coin is a complete abrogation of our Constitutional rights and I find that more fearsome than a child with a weird name.
The child can legally change his/her name but, once our rights erode, it's nearly impossible to regain them.

So, I say we have pity for the poor children abused by idiot parents and do all we can to help them gain self esteem and to overcome the negatives posed by their names.

[RULE BRITANNIA]

in the uk, the registrar certainly is allowed to refuse an inappropriate name.

[SavvySue]

Sadly, I have never heard of any such laws.

[Cap.n1Eye]

Yes, there is such a law - The Law of Common Sense. The problem is: Nobody has a PhD, therefore no teachers.

[Patti]

There are two local people with unusual names, one is a lady named Jezebel, and a young man named Lucifer, the only reason I know it is because they were both arrested in the past year.

[Jodi D]

I don't think we have such laws -- yet. I worked as a unit secretary in a hospital one year. We had a patient named Chanda Lear. When I worked as an elementary school secretary, we had students named Gator Swamp Burton, Zarcon Maddox III, and Clamydia Washington -- no joke.

I read once that a little boy named God was unhappy in school because teachers refused to call him by that name. His parents sued three teachers and the school district. The judge ruled that the teachers could address the child by his last name and strongly advised that the parents change the child's name. I never heard if they took his advice.

[139]

Not quite enough laws governing it, apparently.

[LITTLE BIG MAN.]

Spike no my friend,but I do see your Point,there should be,its the Parents that are Dummy's,
so take care my friend.

[Henri]

In Finland yes, u cant give one these to your kids name.

1) foundation, association or other entity name.

2) the registered trade name or trade mark or other trade symbol is used in a protected.

3) a well-known artist's name or the name of the mark.

And then there are couple of more laws. one parents tried to name their kip roope-ropeli (roope-propeller) but it was not accepted.