Reading BBC news during my lunch break today I discovered that Nicole Kidman has given birth to a baby girl. They’ve named her Sunday Rose. Not really surprising… it’s just another silly name in a long line of ridiulous celebrity baby names. What I wonder though is how come they’re allowed to get away with it? In Germany, when you go to register your child you have to prove that the name you’ve chosen is a) actually a name and b) fits the gender of your baby, so no calling baby boys Rebecca of girls David. If the name you’ve chosen can be used for either gender (think Robin and Jamie) you have to add a middle name that shows the actual gender of the child. So Ashley Jamie wouldn’t be allowed as neither name is gender specific. No random words (windy) or names of objects (table) are to be used as names. Obviously you can still end up with silly sounding names, either because parents pick something from another country that they have no idea how to pronounce (so Janine becomes something like Schaninuh) or because they combine two completely different names into a double name – a classic example from a German website is “Chastity-Claire”. But at least German children, even celebrity ones, are given names that are, in fact, names. Why do we not have this rule in England? How can people get away with naming their kids Asia (a country, not a name!) or Apple (fruit last time I checked)? Yes, I know all about freedom of opinion and not limiting people with too many rules, but honestly… would you want to be named Sunday Rose??
If I have a duaghter I think I’ll name her Daffodil. Maybe that way she’ll become famous one day! (Please note, this is a JOKE! I would never give a child a stupid name like Daffodil).
Confuzzledom 