I wasn’t going to mention the unfortunate case of the morons in New Zealand who wanted to name their boy 4Real, but I got an email from Duncan, a co-worker of a friend, about it that’s so good, I’m just going to reproduce it here:
I read a BBC article about a stupid baby name and thought you might like it for your blog (original item here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6937327.stm)
A Mum and Dad decided to call their son 4Real after seeing an ultrasound image of him. It was then they realised that their baby was “for real”.
However, the country’s registrar of births, deaths and marriages rejected their choice of name stating that first names starting with a number are not allowed.
The law also advises parents to avoid names that could cause their child to be teased or made fun of.
So the parents now plan to call their newborn son Superman – ah there we go, a simple, elegant solution to the problem.
The baby’s family argues that if people can be known as John Williams III, for example, then why can a number not be used at the beginning of a name?
In fact we suffered a similar problem when my son Zak was born. I actually wanted to name him “Holy Shit”, after I saw the ultrasound scan. But we couldn’t decide between that and “Oh Bollocks”, which was my wifes choice.
#1 by Samh on August 13th, 2007
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They are free to call their second son ( or daughter, ) Superman II, but not Superman III.
It is very unlikely however for altruistic tendencies to form in the child.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6679