Baby Names Banned Around the World: Rules, Stories, and Surprises

TL;DR: Most countries regulate baby names far more strictly than the US, from Iceland's approved-names committee to Denmark's list of 7,000 pre-approved options. Rules typically aim to protect children from embarrassment or preserve cultural identity, but enforcement varies wildly — and some rejected names are genuinely surprising.

In the United States, you can name your baby almost anything. There's no federal naming law. A few states restrict symbols and numbers, but broadly? If you want to name your kid Rocket or Pilot or X, nobody is going to stop you.

This is not normal. Most countries regulate baby names, some quite aggressively. And the reasons range from genuinely protective (preventing children from being burdened with offensive names) to surprisingly controlling (mandating that names follow specific grammatical rules).

Here's a tour of naming laws around the world — the strict, the surprising, and the occasionally absurd.

Iceland: The Approved Names Committee

Iceland operates one of the most restrictive naming systems in the world. The country maintains the Icelandic Naming Committee (Mannanafnanefnd), which keeps an official registry of approved names. If you want to use a name that's not on the list, you must apply for approval.

The rules are specific:

• The name must be compatible with Icelandic grammatical traditions (it needs to decline properly in the language's four grammatical cases).
• It must contain only letters found in the Icelandic alphabet.
• It must not cause the bearer embarrassment.

Names that have been rejected include Harriet (the letter "H" declines differently than Icelandic naming patterns allow), Duncan, and Enrique. A girl named Blær (meaning "light breeze") had to go by "Stulka" (literally "girl") on official documents for 15 years until she won a court case in 2013 to keep her name.

The committee approves roughly 100-150 new names each year and rejects a similar number. Iceland sees this as cultural preservation — protecting a language that has remained remarkably unchanged since the Viking Age.

Denmark: Choose From the List (or Apply)

Denmark maintains a list of roughly 7,000 pre-approved names — about 4,000 female and 3,000 male. Parents choosing from this list can register the name automatically. Anything else requires an application to the local church parish, which forwards it to the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs.

Names can be rejected if they:

• Don't indicate gender clearly
• Are considered unusual enough to be potentially harmful
• Are surnames used as first names (without precedent)
• Use unconventional spelling of common names

Rejected names include Anus, Pluto, and Monkey. But Denmark has also rejected relatively normal names like Christophpher (extra P) and Jakobansen (surname as first name). Bepp and Ashleigh have also been turned down.

The system is gradually liberalizing — Denmark expanded its approved list significantly in 2006 — but it remains far more regulated than English-speaking countries.

Germany: Must Indicate Gender, Must Be a Name

German naming law requires that a child's first name must:

• Clearly indicate the child's gender (gender-neutral names must be paired with a gendered middle name)
• Be recognizable as a name (not a product, object, or surname)
• Not be likely to lead to humiliation

The local Standesamt (civil registry office) makes the determination, and they consult a reference book called the Internationales Handbuch der Vornamen (International Handbook of First Names). If your name isn't in the book, you need to provide evidence that it's used as a first name somewhere in the world.

Banned names include Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Stompie, and Woodstock. Germany has approved some surprising choices, though — Legolas, Nemo, and Pumuckl have all been accepted. The system is strict but not humorless.

New Zealand: The Banned Names List

New Zealand publishes its list of rejected names, making it one of the most transparent systems in the world. The Department of Internal Affairs reviews names and blocks those deemed offensive, unreasonably long, or resembling official titles.

Names that have been rejected:

• Lucifer — Rejected multiple times
• 4Real — A couple wanted to name their son this after seeing his ultrasound; rejected because it contained a numeral
• Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii — A 9-year-old girl was made a ward of the court so the judge could change her name, which the parents had legally registered at birth
• Justice — Rejected (resembles a title)
• King — Rejected (title)
• Princess — Rejected (title)
• using full stops or symbols — All rejected

But New Zealand approved Number 16 Bus Shelter and Violence — decisions that raised eyebrows and led to calls for stricter enforcement.

Sweden: The Naming Law of 1982

Sweden's naming law was originally enacted partly in response to a protest. In 1996, a couple tried to name their child Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced "Albin," they claimed) as a protest against the naming law itself. The name was rejected.

Swedish law requires:

• Names must not cause discomfort to the bearer
• Names must not be obviously unsuitable as a first name
• Surnames cannot be used as first names without special permission

Rejected names include Metallica (rejected in 2007, then later approved on appeal — Sweden's courts were divided), Superman, Veranda, Ikea, and Elvis. Google was also rejected as a baby name.

Interestingly, Sweden approved Lansen (a military aircraft), which seems inconsistent with rejecting Metallica, and this inconsistency is part of why the law is regularly debated.

Saudi Arabia: Cultural and Religious Standards

Saudi Arabia maintains a list of names that are banned for religious, political, or cultural reasons. The list was formalized in 2014 with roughly 50 names.

Banned names include:

• Malak (angel) — Considered blasphemous
• Abdul Naser — Political associations
• Binyamin (Benjamin) — Considered too associated with Israeli culture
• Alice — Deemed not in keeping with Saudi culture
• Sandy — Same reasoning
• Linda — Same reasoning

The list reflects Saudi Arabia's approach to cultural preservation through naming, though it has been criticized internationally for restricting parents' choices based on political and religious grounds rather than the child's welfare.

Portugal: The Approved List

Portugal publishes an official list of acceptable names, and the civil registry office enforces it strictly. Names must be:

• Portuguese in form (or have an established Portuguese version)
• Full names, not diminutives (you can't register Toni; it must be Antonio)
• Gender-specific

This means international names that don't have Portuguese equivalents can be rejected. Tom has been rejected (must be Tomas). Nirvana, Sayonara, and Viking have all been turned down. Even Martini was rejected — though whether the concern was the alcohol or the non-Portuguese form is unclear.

Japan: Character Restrictions

Japan doesn't maintain a banned names list per se, but it restricts which kanji (Chinese characters) can be used in names. The Ministry of Justice maintains the jinmeiyō kanji list — roughly 2,998 approved characters for use in names (as of 2023). Any character not on this list or the standard-use jōyō kanji list cannot be used.

This is more restrictive than it sounds. Some parents have fought legal battles to use specific characters. In 1993, a father was denied the right to name his son Akuma (devil/demon) — the Tokyo family court ruled it would be harmful to the child.

Readings (pronunciations) are less regulated than the characters themselves. A child's name can technically be written with characters meaning "starlight" but pronounced "Tom." This loophole has led to the trend of kirakira names — names with elaborate characters but unexpected pronunciations — which have become a cultural flashpoint in Japan.

France: Post-1993 Liberalization

Until 1993, France enforced the Napoleonic Law of 1803, which required parents to choose names from an approved list of saints and historical figures. This meant generations of French children were named Pierre, Marie, Jean, and Catherine — and not much else.

The law was liberalized in 1993, giving parents much more freedom. Civil registrars can still flag names they consider contrary to the child's best interests, but they must go through the courts to block them. Post-1993 rejections include Nutella, Strawberry (Fraise), Manhattan, and MJ (deemed not a real name).

In 2015, a French court rejected Mini Cooper as a baby name. The parents were told the name could expose their child to mockery.

The United States: The Wild West

The US has no federal naming law. Naming restrictions vary by state and are mostly limited to practical concerns:

• Most states require names to be written in English characters (no diacritics, no symbols)
• Some states limit name length (Massachusetts caps at 40 characters for first names)
• A few states prohibit numerals and pictograms
• California, for instance, restricts names to the 26 letters of the English alphabet — no accents, no hyphens in some counties

But beyond these technical limits, American parents have extraordinary freedom. Names on actual US birth certificates include Abcde (pronounced "Ab-si-dee," given to 328 children between 1990 and 2018), ESPN, Hashtag, and Facebook. The government won't stop you.

This freedom is a double-edged sword. It allows for creative, meaningful, culturally specific names that rigid systems would reject. It also allows for names that many would argue burden the child.

"When we work with international families, naming law compatibility is one of the first things we flag. A name that's perfectly normal in the US might be unregistrable in a parent's home country — and discovering that after the birth certificate is signed creates real legal headaches," says HushName's naming research team.

Why Naming Laws Exist

The common thread across most naming regulations is a stated concern for the child's welfare. The argument: a child didn't choose their name, and they'll carry it for life. Society has some interest in preventing parents from using their child's name as a joke, a political statement, or a brand.

Critics counter that naming laws often reflect cultural homogeneity rather than child welfare — that banning names like Alice in Saudi Arabia or Harriet in Iceland isn't about protecting children, it's about protecting cultural purity. And they have a point.

The healthiest systems seem to be those that block genuinely harmful names (slurs, explicit references to violence or evil) while allowing broad creative freedom. But where exactly that line falls? Every country draws it differently.

"The best naming laws protect children without erasing cultural identity. The worst ones use 'child welfare' as a cover for enforcing linguistic conformity. Parents should know the difference," says HushName's naming research team.

What This Means for You

If you're naming a baby in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia, you have near-total freedom. Use it wisely. The fact that you can name your child anything doesn't mean every name serves them equally well.

And if your family spans multiple countries — or if you might relocate — it's worth checking whether your chosen name is registrable in other jurisdictions. A name that works beautifully in New York might hit bureaucratic walls in Copenhagen.

FAQ

Q: What baby names are illegal? It depends on the country. Names that are commonly banned include titles (King, Princess, Justice), offensive words, numerals or symbols (4Real was rejected in New Zealand), and names deemed likely to cause embarrassment or harm to the child. In the US, there are almost no restrictions beyond some states limiting characters to the English alphabet.

Q: Can you name your baby anything in the US? Nearly, yes. The US has no federal naming law, so restrictions vary by state. Most states require English characters and some cap name length (Massachusetts limits first names to 40 characters), but there are no content-based restrictions. Names like Abcde, ESPN, and Hashtag have all appeared on US birth certificates.

Q: What country has the strictest baby naming laws? Iceland is widely considered the strictest. The Icelandic Naming Committee maintains an official registry of approved names, and any name not on the list requires a formal application. Names must be compatible with Icelandic grammar, use only Icelandic-alphabet letters, and not cause embarrassment — requirements that have blocked common international names like Harriet and Duncan.

Q: Why do some countries ban baby names? The stated reason is almost always child welfare — preventing children from carrying names that could cause ridicule or social harm throughout their lives. However, critics argue that many naming laws also serve cultural preservation goals, enforcing linguistic norms and national identity rather than purely protecting the child's interests.

Q: Can a baby name be rejected in Europe? Yes, many European countries actively regulate baby names. Germany requires names to indicate gender and be recognizable as names. Denmark maintains a list of 7,000 pre-approved names. France liberalized its strict Napoleonic-era naming law in 1993 but still allows courts to block names deemed contrary to a child's best interests. Portugal requires names to be Portuguese in form.