Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 10:26:28 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Regulated names (was: Crazy Laws) Message-ID: <19981224102628.S12346@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <368102F5.C90B94D5@uk.radan.com>; from Mark Ovens on Wed, Dec 23, 1998 at 02:49:25PM %2B0000 References: <368102F5.C90B94D5@uk.radan.com>
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On Wednesday, 23 December 1998 at 14:49:25 +0000, Mark Ovens wrote: > I always thought Scandinavia was a free and easy-going place. > I'm not so sure after I spotted this on Teletext... > > MOTHER JAILED OVER SON'S NAME > > "A mother of 14 children was jailed for 2 days > because she refused to change the name she picked > for her young son. > > Norway has strict laws regulating names, including > lists of acceptable first and last names. > > Kirsti Larsen, 46, said she named her son Gesher > after she dreamed the child should be named Bridge > - gesher means bridge in Hebrew." Germany has strict laws on this, too. They also have strict laws on surnames, and refused to allow my wife (French) to adopt my surname when we married, claiming that the French would not allow it. My wife got an official statement to the contrary from the French Embassy, but they didn't accept that. My daughter was born in Germany, though she's not a German national, and I was damned if I was going to let them dictate her name. Unfortunately, it turned out that the name we chose was on their list. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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