Messiah & Sir among baby names banned in New Zealand
You'd think that in a world where Kanye West can name his son 'Saint' that you could name your little nipper whatever the hell you like, right?
Well, no, actually. At least not in New Zealand where there's a list of illegal baby names. The Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Act rules that you can't name your child anything that causes offence, is unreasonably long or resembles an official title or rank.
So, Prince, Princess, and Chief are out. So too is Superintendent.
Registrar-general of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Jeff Montgomery is the man who deems whether names are acceptable or not; he rejected 49 last year.
‘Most parents are serious,’ he told Stuff New Zealand. ‘They think it’s a name that fits their baby. They think it’s a nice name. There’s not normally anything nasty about it. They’re not intending it to be offensive.’
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The rejected list from 2015 is as follows:
Messiah 7
King 5
Royal 4
Prince 3
Royale 3
Bishop 2
Princess 2
Empress 2
/ [symbol in name] 2
() [name in brackets] 2
Sir 1
Royahl 1
Rogue 1
Knight 1
Justyce 1
Lord 1
Regal 1
Suprintedent 1
Royaal 1
Commodore 1
Justice 1
Chief 1
Sarjant 1
Impryss 1
Christ 1
Queen 1
MMMR 1
Now. Would you ever want to name your child any of these names? And if you did, would you be well peed off if you couldn't?