FullMetal*Panic!

the article....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,362902,00.html

When its not obscene a gov. should back off when it comes to giving a name.
Still, I think parents should at least be pointed out that the name they pick
could mean a cruel mental torture at school.


If I ever have kids I'm going to call them Optimus and Megatron...

sweden has strange laws....

Why on Earth would the Swedish government even give rat's rear-end what someone names their kid? It is interesting that is a tax board that insinuates itself into such a private matter. Probably a bunch of unelected techocrats with delusions of relevance...

Its not unusual to find a law like this in Europe. In Hungary, given names are kept in a catalog from which the mother can choose. If a name she wants is not in the catalog then she can petition for its inclusion. The restrictions on a petitioned name are that it cannot be gender neutral, it cannot be offensive, and some more that I can't remember. The name must match the gender of the child. On top of that the child can be given either or both family names. However, a person can only have a maximum of 2 family names. When they have children, they need to take this into account, since you can legally have 4 family names to choose from if both parents have both grand parent family names.

Also keep in mind that in Hungary, we use eastern notation for names. (Family names followed by given name)

This isn't so bad as it keeps some stupid names out (like Tabelnchairs). These laws are over a thousand years old in most cases,. Some are due to early church/religious influence on monarchs and some are due to then urge to keeping a communal-identity of a people.

I personally prefer more conventional names, but with all due respect, no government should have the power to curb this type of self-expression as it is a form of Free Speech, and that comes from the Creator, not the local Politburo, Tax Board, or Zoning Commission. As long as name given the kid doesn't infringe on anyone else's rights, the bureaucrats should just stay out of it.

Just because a law is old, doesn't mean it is a good one. For a long time there were very old laws that said it was okay to own fellow human beings as slaves.

slavery far different than being limited to picking a name out of list of thousands. LOL

When we looked for our baby's name, guess what? We looked at a bunch of lists on the internet. The majority of people do exactly the same. I don't see a problem with it, since it soooooo rare that a name gets rejected anyway.

Sure there is an obvious difference. My point being that just because human beings make laws and they are on the books for years, decades, or centuries that doesn't necessarily mean those laws are just. Freedom of Speech should never be infringed on, unless the exercise therof harms someone else or interferes with their exercise of their rights.

Again, People's names have nothing to do with freedom of speech. But since you keep insisting on the freedom of speech angle:

unless the exercise thereof harms someone else or interferes with their exercise of their rights

And what about the welfare of the child stuck with an idiotic name? You claim that a parent has more rights than the child? The parents as they can choose an name that can socially stigmatize a child but thats OK since its the parents right to do so, and the child can go *&^*& himself/herself. ( It is fair to claim that idiotic names is a form of child abuse, ask Moonunit or Dweezil. )

If thats the case then Freedom only applies to people of power, therefore it is no different for anywhere else.

it's much ado about nothing i say
if you don't like your name, change it

Unfortunately you have to wait until you're 18 to do so, by then ITS TOO LATE! BWAHAHAHAAHAAHA!!!

( Thinks of a name: Candice Guy Humphrey , falls over laughing )

You are absolutely correct, in the end it doesn't matter since these are soooo few and far between that you rarely get denied a given name.