MINISTER CALLS FOR BAN ON FUNNY BABY NAMES Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister, Peya Mushelenga called for the banning of offensive baby names, saying that Namibian lawmakers should step in and stop parents from giving vengeful baby names. “A legal ban on the practice of offensive baby names will stop fathers from taking revenge on the mothers by calling the baby ‘Ndalipo,’ which means ‘I was there’ or names meaning ‘Shame on you’,” Mushelenga said. The Deputy Minister said that it is a rather common practice by the Oshiwambo speaking people to give belittling names to children in order to ‘settle scores’. “It is ridiculous of people to think that this is a way to get back at each other.” He further said that an offensive name given to a child can have serious emotional and psychological effects on that person later in his or her life. Namibia, however will not be the first country to introduce such legislation. Many other countries have restrictions on naming babies. Japan for instance similar to China, has a certain set of characters that can be used in a childs name. In Germany the name has to indicate gender, and it cannot be a last name or a product, or negatively affect the child. Portugal has a set list of names approved and not approved published periodically by the Institute of Registration at the Ministry of Justice and in Iceland parents are limited to choosing childrens names from the Personal Names Register, which is a list of about 1800 names for each gender. Then last, but not least in Hungary a childs name must be chosen from a list of pre-approved names, and should the parents wish to give a name not on the pre-approved list it must go through a lengthy process to get consent. Another country bombarded with funny, offensive or just down right ridiculous names is South Africa. Here are just a few for your amusement.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 09:15:36 +0000
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