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Icelandic Approved Names – Nordic Names
- tomzorz 3y agoSame in Hungary. Although you can petition for new names to be added to the register
- forinti 3y agoThere's a list of allowed names in Portugal too, but you can also request an exception.
- juujian 3y agoI'm kind of surprised that Mohammed can't be found on either list. The most common first name in the world probably, and neither it hasn't been approved or rejected, meaning that nobody has even tried in Iceland. That's how small of a county it is I suppose.
- __s 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Iceland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Iceland ~1000
- __derek__ 3y agoIt looks like there are only 35 in Iceland.[1] It's more popular in the continental Nordic countries, though. [1]: https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Mohammed https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Mohammed
- stavros 3y agoOr how clustered cultures are.
- thinkerswell 3y ago[dead]
- lotsofpulp 3y agoI never understood cultures that name everyone the same name. Why even bother naming them? The whole purpose is to be able to identify someone.
- euroderf 3y agosee: Monty Python, Australia, everyone is Bruce
- aziaziazi 3y agoIn my culture we like to say all Americans are named John. I many John’s coming from the USA. Mohammed is extremely popular in some countries but even in those territories there’s still a ton of other names.
- nozzlegear 3y agoYeah, as an American, I only know one person named John. He happens to be a good friend, but I can’t think of anyone else with that name that I’ve met in recent time. Just because John or Mohammed are very popular names doesn’t mean you’re running into one each time you turn a corner.
- 7oi 3y agoThat’s not to say that it’s not an accepted name. If your heritage/lineage/culture includes a name not on this list you can rather easily get an exception from these rules. Although, if not, you’re pretty much stuck with this list. Never been a fan of the naming commitee. Sure, their reasoning may be to uphold Icelandic heritage, but honestly I always feel like that reasoning is a slippery slope into nationalism. But I do support having a naming committee to prevent asshole parents from naming their kid Kúkur or something.
- pyuser583 3y agoI think this is totally fine. Iceland is small. Its culture is perpetually endangered. And nobody gets to chose their birth name.
- 13of40 3y agoThe same rules apply for an adult changing their name: https://www.skra.is/english/people/names/name-changes/ https://www.skra.is/english/people/names/name-changes/ As someone who spent half my life with a name I hated, to me this is more "human rights violation" than "fine".
- fullspectrumdev 3y agoI’m with you on this, it seems pointlessly fucking restrictive and incompatible with individual liberties.
- ghnws 3y agoFor adults, yeah. For children the system is great. In Finland the rejected names are published and there are many really horrible ones. A child is a person.
- skrebbel 3y agoIs the name you hated a regular name in your language and culture? If so, I’m curious what made you hate it (I mean this literally, not skeptically). I think the assumption here is that kids named “Aquamann” or “Adolf Hitler Campbell” are likely to hate their name, but people named “Guðmundur” (in Iceland) much less so. I’m curious what you think about that assumption.
- joshmanders 3y agoMany reasons to hate ones name. Have an abusive father and your name happens to be John Jr? I wouldn't want to have my fathers name either, even though there's nothing wrong with the name John.
- noelwelsh 3y agoI can't believe Aquamann and Bald have been rejected. Who wouldn't want those names for their children?
- 542458 3y agoBald is a “normal” (as in, not something the parents invented) name, although it’s not as popular as it once was. It’s a derivative of Baldwin/Baldric/Beald/Balder.
- HankB99 3y ago> The Name Finding Guide is fun, easy to use and extremely effective From https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Finding_The_Perfect_Name https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Finding_The_Perfect_Name I find this ... funny. I'm happy to live in a country where we are free to choose our offspring's names (though I do think Elon Musk could have done better. I Checked and "Elon" is approved.)
- Ekaros 3y agoI prefer state to protect children from their parents... Elon Musk is perfect example of this. "X Æ A-Xii" is just a joke... And exactly type of name that should not be given to children... Nothing wrong with "Elon" I agree...
- Sebb767 3y ago> "X Æ A-Xii" is just a joke... To be fair, this kid will be in social circles where being maximally exotic is highly valued. It will probably never see a normal school from the inside. Don't get me wrong, I don't particularly like this name, but you have to see it in context (just like a traditional Icelandic name would be fine in Iceland, but not so much in the IS or Germany).
- hnlmorg 3y agoYou’re free to choose your offspring’s names in Iceland too. There’s even a list to help you choose. ;) By the way, a lot of American states have rules for that baby names are allowed too. And there have been cases where names that have adhered to state law have still been refused (like names attached to Nazism). America is just a lot more opaque about what names are allowed and what are not.
- ghnws 3y agoThe law is to protect children from dumb parents. You can give a funny name to a dog if you want, not to a person.
- pachico 3y agoWell done, Aquamann parents. He'll always be called Aquamann in our hearts.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoAquamann Aquamannson
- sorokod 3y ago...and the sweet Aquamanndottir
- colinng 3y agoDitto Lucifer and 2 other variants. Does it have the same ring as, “all right, Satan” or is it actually a nice name in Iceland?
- User23 3y agoFunny how Caesar is on the approved list. In fact so is Hannibal! Napoleon is the only world famous conqueror who doesn’t make the cut that I could find in a brief search.
- bradhe 3y agoWritten in English, using a German TLD. I love the future!
- atum47 3y agoNice! My name made the list.
- doikor 3y agoHere in Finland there is no list but if you try to give a name that has not been given before it goes to a board to be checked that it is appropriate. Basically done to protect the child from names that they would be bullied for.
- ghnws 3y agoThe rejected names are published too. Makes it pretty clear why the system is good to have in place.
- anewhnaccount2 3y agoIn practice many choose to pick a name with a name day in order to fit in with this tradition.
- gehsty 3y agoIs it ensure sanitised sql queries https://xkcd.com/327 https://xkcd.com/327
- robocat 3y agoMany (most?) countries have naming restrictions. This Wikipedia article mentions the laws by country and there are some really odd restrictions: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_law I find the entry for my country New Zealand to be pretty funny - although presumably less funny for the parents. I especially like that * is a banned name (for technical reasons: I think because it means NULL in the DIA for people with only one name - not because it interferes with search - I would also guess Asterisk as a word is allowed).
- larkost 3y agoHere is Hungary's list: https://magyarnevek.com https://magyarnevek.com My spouse is Hungarian, and despite living in the U.S. we decided to pick names off the list for our kids. We started by printing off the relevant list and then crossing out ones we each did not like.
- curious_curios 3y agoToday I learned that I can be named Dan 1, or Dan 3, but Dan 2 is entirely off limits.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- chihuahua 3y agoIf that's what it takes to maintain the purity of Icelandic culture, then it's a price we must be willing to accept.
- pimlottc 3y agoI’m curious about the “Eventually Approved Names”. Some of them were rejected 4 times or more before being accepted! I would love to know more; what’s the bar for “overturning” a previous denial? Do you have to present new evidence or present a novel argument? Or is it just a matter of public tastes evolving over time? There are summaries posts of the recent decisions that has some hints but it doesn’t really go into much detail.
- sema4hacker 3y agoI see that Michael is allowed, but Mike is not accepted or rejected. Can you be called whatever you want as long as you never formally use a variation?
- 7oi 3y agoNote: you can request names outside this list if f.ex. one or both parents are citizens with a foreign background. I know this from first hand experience and it was a relatively easy process.
- beloch 3y agoIcelandic spelling is subtle. e.g. Rejected: Amelia [1] Accepted: Amelía [1] Honestly, it seems as though this list's purpose is to standardize spelling as much as it is to bar weird names. [1]https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Amelia https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Amelia [2]https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Amel%C3%ADa https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Amel%C3%ADa
- Waterluvian 3y agoNaming humans is odd. It has significant implications every day for the person, but they don’t really get a say in the matter. I really respect parents who don’t see it as a form of accessorization. Your kid doesn’t need to be Duke Leto II. Paul will suffice.
- xXx_uwu_xXx 3y ago'Nordic' is one of those words that are meant erase all things Uralic.
- eesmith 3y agoThe linked-to page has sections with Finnish names and with Sami names. Plus Greenlandic names.
- ghnws 3y agoElaborate?
- eesmith 3y agoI am not the OP but I can hazard a guess. "Nordic" has multiple meanings. One is "of the Nordic countries", which are the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland, plus a handful of other Norwegian areas. Some also include Estonia (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_identity_in_Estonia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_identity_in_Estonia). "Nordic" can also mean more specifically "Scandinavian", for example, the North Germanic languages are also referred to as the Nordic languages, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_folklore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_folklore says "Nordic folklore" is "the folklore of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands", which you'll see does not list Finland or Greenland. And if you look more closely, you'll see it's not actually "the folklore of Sweden" but "the folklore of ethnic Swedes", since Nordic folklore does not typically include Sámi folklore. There's also a long history of discrimination against the Sámi. Taking it about 10 steps more extreme, Nordicism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordicism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordicism) used race psuedoscience to characterize the Nordic peoples as the most superior Aryans, and the master race. Finns were not seen as part of the Nordic race, but members of, for examples, the East Baltic or Mongolian races. In the US, Finns were sometimes not seen as white Europeans but as Asians, and thus justifying discrimination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_the_United_States#Finnish_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_th... Thus, when someone says "Nordic", do they mean the inclusive version which includes the Uralic Finns and Sámi? Or do they mostly mean the Scandinavian parts of the Nordic countries, with the Uralic and Greenlandic inhabitants as afterthoughts or even forgotten? Even if they mean the former, it can carry with it the exclusion of the latter. The linked-to Nordic Names site includes Sámi, Finnish, and Greenlandic names, so it's more into the inclusive category.