Apparently the Germans have a law against giving your children names that can ruin their lives.Seems reasonable.
But I ask you: who decides it's OK to name your child Adelheid or Gertrude or Uwe but draw the line at Verucca?
October 5, 2009
Where do you draw the line?
Apparently the Germans have a law against giving your children names that can ruin their lives.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I admit. I'd much rather have Verucca. Is there some odd meaning of it in Germany?
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with Verucca?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds weird but I sort of wish somebody would have been around to ban my real first name. It has given me grief all of my life with the teasing. Maybe I'll move to Germany and start all over. :)
ReplyDeleteI wrote an entire post about this. The celebrities are the worst. Cruel and unusual punishment.
ReplyDeleteMe. The first three are real names. Verucca is a wart.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.embarrassingproblems.com/verrucas.htm
The Swedes also have to have their names approved of by the Name Ministry. Apparently, you can call your kid Brandy and Whisky but not Tequila...
ReplyDeleteThe Sweden case - a girl was named Edradour (a brand of whisky), not Whisky. Her parents argued for it because it's the name of a town (so kind of like people who name their kids Madison, Vienna, or Geneva - not a practice I dig but most Americans would be all for it). I don't know anything about the Brandy story, but if they accepted it, it's probably because it's become an established name in a foreign country already (America).
ReplyDelete/name nerd
It is true that Verruca means wart but it has such a nice sound. Actually I don't think the Germans would have a problem with it since it doesn't mean wart in German. . .
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? Can they really keep you from naming a child with the name of your choosing?
ReplyDeleteJa, zey haf veys of making you geev your cheeldren normal names.
ReplyDeleteActually, I agree with CN and I only knew Verucca as an evil made-up name from Willie Wonka. I am ok with controls on names- one can appeal and show that it is a real name somewhere. In the SCA, one is required to give citations for names and it's only when a name is quite unusual here that it causes problems. I'm ok with the control of multiple hyphenations as well.
ReplyDeleteThere are some cases that have caused problems, but this isn't one of them.
Actually it is Latin so it crosses a lot of languages as a medical word, probably. Chlamydia has a nice sound too, ya know...;)
ReplyDeleteOoh, Chlamydia, that's lovely! Why did the stupid doctors of venereal desease, women's body parts, and so forth hog all the good names?
ReplyDeleteOh, Laura, with the "secret plot to devalue the dollar" recently unveiled, my mantle of skeptcism has flown the coop. Plus, it's late here in the states.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm thinking you're really serious . . that Germany dictates what names a parent can give a child. True? Really?
Yours always,
Moon Zappa
I draw the line at Verucca too. A BIG BLACK permanent marker line.
ReplyDeleteI am all for this here in the states. End this cruelty to children!! I can't even pronounce most of the kids' names in my daughter's class. I swear, she showed me a list of names and I thought it was jibberish.
ReplyDeleteWell, now there's a good name: Jibberish.