Personally I'd be in favour of some restrictions for naming children (no obscenities, no outright nonsense) but not for name changes once someone is an adult.

Personally I'd be in favour of some restrictions for naming children (no obscenities, no outright nonsense) but not for name changes once someone is an adult. Deciding you want to be called something once you're old enough to make that decision yourself is one thing, imposing something on someone else when you're not having to live with the consequences is something else entirely. The "it's our child" argument I don't buy at all. No, the child is it's own person, you're just responsible for it and you have some responsibility to think through the consequences of your actions.