Denmark has the most ridiculous or call it strange law that governs and limits parents the freedom in naming their children.
According to the laws, the advantage for having the strict rules in place is to protect the children from being given embarrassing or even sometimes offensive names.
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Well, Denmark parents must choose their kid’s name from a list of approximately 7,000 pre-approved names or if not okay with those, seek approval from both the government or a local church.
Danish parents must also ensure that the name chosen shows the child’s gender and furthermore ensure that the surname is the not the first one.
Parents have been directed also to be coinciding with the Danish orthography, that is avoid naming the child Cammmila when it should be Camilla.
On the same note, there are a number of names highly forbidden by the country. These names include; Pluto, Monkey, and Anus among others
Denmark’s government put forward the strict naming law in order to prohibit some parents from naming their baby’s according to their own desires.
The country also passed the rule in order to ensure there is no confusion while identifying a child’s gender.
Before the century-old law, children of the next generation would acquire surnames from their parents for example, Peter Hansen would name his son Hans Petersen and later Hans name his son Peter Hansen.
Danish people also don’t have the liberty to change their last name, this can only happen after visiting their local church or the authority or the Ankestyrelsen.
Eccentric celebrity spawn names can however be allowed in some cases as mentioned above. Those parents who want out of the stringent laws have freedom to choose their names.
These parents can do this by visiting the Ankestyrelsen, a state independent body that is within the purview of Denmark’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration
Note that, the parents must have taken their name to a church for approval before submitting it to the Ankestyrelsen for approval.
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The body receives about 1,100 novel annually and reject 15% to 20% of them.
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