Did you know…?
In Denmark, it is illegal to name your child Apple.
Denmark is known as a country that loves to embrace rules. Perhaps one of the oddest—and strictest—laws is the one which restricts what you can name your child.
The Law on Personal Names, more than 100 years old, was originally instated to prevent people from changing their last names with every generation, or even poaching surnames from the noble class (a huge problem for the country). However, in the 1960s, a furor was created by one couple’s wish to name their child Tessa, a name too close to tisse, which means “to urinate” in Danish. The government once again stepped in, expanding the law to cover first names.
The law is now primarily in place to protect children from being burdened with outrageous, preposterous, or just downright silly names. The law also stipulates that first names can’t also be last names, and that a girl can’t have a boy’s name (and vice versa). Danish parents-to-be now must choose their child’s name from a government list of 7,000 primarily West European and English names—4,000 for girls and 3,000 for boys.
It is possible to deviate from the list, but it’s a difficult and bureaucratic process. After the child is born, parents have to file an unapproved name request at their local parish church. The request then goes to Copenhagen University’s Names Investigation Department for investigation; once it passes there, it goes to the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs for review, which has ultimate authority. Names of inanimate objects such as Apple, or of places such as Brooklyn or Cuba are immediately rejected; many names with odd spellings such as Molli, Jakopb, or Ashleiy may not make the cut, either. The process of approval is also a slow one, which means a child can go without a first name for weeks or even months.
Long story short: if you want to name your kid Duvet Rhubarb, don’t move to Denmark!
Did you also know…?
- Potpourri
- Sweden once had two Leaps Days in one year.
- Doorways make you forget.
- In the wrong hands, one Christmas custom can bring a whole lot of bad luck.
- Because of a printer’s error, one edition of the Bible went from pious to downright wicked.
- Singing “Happy Birthday to You” in public can land you in jail.
- According to Italian space trackers, there are cosmonauts stranded in space.
- In Denmark, it is illegal to name your child Apple.
- A small strait off the coast of Wales is the scene of the strangest coincidence ever recorded.
- The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
- Nutmeg can kill you.
- A Frenchman once ate an entire airplane.
- Shakespeare wrote the first knock-knock joke.
- In fifteenth-century Britain, people were banned from wearing buttons.
- The fear of Friday the 13th is called Friggatriskaidekaphobia.
- The Mayflower set sail from Devonshire, England, on this day—in 1957.
- There is no need to be wary of Ides.
- The word “Abracadabra” was originally used to cure malaria.
- Post-it® notes were invented in church.