Should government be able to dictate what parents can or cannot name their children?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070621/ap_on_fe_st/odd_new_zealand_baby_name

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand authorities have blocked a couple's bid to officially name their new son "4real," saying numerals are not allowed.

New Zealand law requires all children born in the South Pacific nation to be registered with the Births, Deaths and Marriages registry within two months of birth.

Answer 1

Absolutely not. It's none of the government's business. An elected government is supposed to do what WE say, not the other way round. They work for US and as such have no right to tell us how to name our children. Some of you seem to have forgotten this basic fact of a free society. Government should be involved in our lives as little as possible.

Answer 2

Absolutely.
Parents do not own children; they are not their dictators.
neither are government leaders.

First of all, only one child per couple is a "right", barring genetic infirmities, nd that only because of the fallibility of governments who would otherwise forbid child-bearing after committing economic injustice against the potential parents; after one child, any couple should have to pay 56% of foreseeable expenses before they can have another ch;ld--to prevent unwanted births, and prevent the rest of us for having to pay for their children whom they cannot care for.

Enforced abortion is not a spectre; senseless and destructive overpopulatiopn is the number two problem in the entire world, behind philosophical postmodernist totalitarianism in government.

Governors serve the purpose of stopping any individual fro doing that which harms the rights of another; in this case, the future right of the child to a "name" that will not become a psychological burden is what is at stake.
Until the government does something about making changing one's name easier, children should be safeguarded from having fastened onto them a name that will cause them needless stress, shame, or psychological harm.

Names need to be 'governed" for this reason. They are not a case for later redress; the damage will have been done. A damage the child will have to live with every day of its life.

Liberty does not mean freedom from scientific and necessary regulation; it means one needs a means to claim one's rights after first watching out for the rights of others concerned. In this case, the right of a child is to a name that is not detrimental to the individual's mental well-being.
It is hard enough to get a decent education in scientific thinking and to grow up sane under governments of supposedly beneveolent elected or tsaristic tyrants without having added to one's burdens a name that occasions bullying, taunting and ridicule.

Answer 3

Good for them. France also regulates name. That way people won't use some the horrible names used in the US:

Ima Hogg
Queen Esther King
Truely Irish

Those are actual names of students I have had. Poor kids.

Answer 4

I'm not going to read that article so I may be missing something but words, names and nouns don't contain numbers. Think about those exams you take in school where you have to print your name then fill in the circle of each letter below it; there is no 4 there to fill in. This name would cause too many problems.

Answer 5

My God! Thank goodness the government got a hold of that. Can you imagine being called "4real"?!

If parents are responsible enough to show compassion for their children by not giving them terrible names then the government should be able to step in.

Answer 6

France does too. At least at one time it limited the names used to the names of the saints in the Roman Catholic calendar. As long as we have parents who are more interested in making a statement then in insuring that their kid isn't teased to death then maybe we need a referee more than a censor.

Answer 7

i think they went too a tactics with Lucifer, that call does not inevitably could be linked with the devil, or devils toddler etc. Plus if the toddler relatively needed to they might use a nickname like Louie. i think of it rather is style of OTT, yet i'm able to understand there are severe situations which may well be unfair to the toddler.

Answer 8

You can't help but wonder what drugs these parents were taking that day. What sounds good now, may not hold up a few years down the road. Maybe some guidelines and restrictions are a good thing sometimes.

Answer 9

If parents are unable to use common sense, then I am glad that the government is willing to step in and prevent the child from having an embarrassment of a name!

Answer 10

I don't know but US government names everybody with a number. Some how I'm socially secured that way.