[Adam Ward]

Brazilians who break the law would be subject to fines or community service.

USA Today

[Rhea]

It's always seemed a little strange to me that someone would give their pet a people-name, but I realize not everyone feels the same. (I knew a brother and sister who named their dogs after their deceased parents!)

But to make it punishable by law? Too weird.

[Paul_Ward]

Seems a bit over the top, but I empathise with the reasoning.

In a similar vein I remember a few years ago that Brazil passed a similar law stopping people giving their kids stupid names after a couple tried to call their son "Rambo".

I think this should be law everywhere as should stupid "individual" spellings that are usually a result of the parents not being able to spell the name properly in the first place. Hence Latisha instead of Laetitia for instance.

There's a girl in one of my classes at the moment called Jd - pronounced Jay-dee, no she's not from anywhere exotic where it's a common name, she's from round here where it's a pretty stupid name. She's a lovely girl stuck with a name that she's acutely embarassed about and has a problem every time she meets someone new and has to explain.

[Leader]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> But to make it punishable by law? Too weird. ~Rhea <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Exactly. That's WAY too much meddling from a government!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> She's a lovely girl stuck with a name that she's acutely embarassed about and has a problem every time she meets someone new and has to explain.~Paul Ward <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for reminding me of one of the "little things" I love about this country--In most (if not all) states in the US, she could just change it to whatever she wanted when she hit her 18th birthday.

I could even go and change my legal name to Leader if I wanted.

[Paul_Ward]

We have the same law Leader, but when you're 13 and your parents have called you something wierd what can you do?

[Look4]

Germany has laws (and I think France and a few other European countries do too) about what you can name a child. There is a book of approved names that you can choose from - they won't issue a birth certificate for a baby if the first and middle name are not on the list.

You can petition to have a name added to the list, but you can only start the process once the baby is born. It can take between a week and a month, depending on whether the committee is on vacation or otherwise unavailable. So you can have a kid with no name for a month or so in some circumstances.

The rules for naming are pretty straight-forward. You have to prove it is a valid name in a country where you have ancestors, so Turkish people can have turkish names added provided they can prove there is previous use in Turkey. A name also has to be clearly male or female sa well. It's either Patrick or Patricia, but you can't name your kid "Pat". AN Johnny Cash would have never made it big with a song named "A boy named Sue".

[ahmar]

Mike is lucky he is not in Brazil otherwise he had to change the name of Charlie.