We have previously discussed how some countries require approval of names or ban the use of some names. This includes a recent court order stripping a baby of the name “Messiah.” Now the city of Brussels has told an Israeli couple that they cannot name their child “Jerusalem” because it is not on the official list of permissible baby names.
As we have previously discussed, the notion of an official name list is highly offensive to many Americans. This would seem the sole discretion of the family in naming its members.
Hagar and Alinadav Hyman wanted their first-born to be named Alma Jerusalem because they “grew up in Jerusalem, we met in Jerusalem and we very much miss the city.” What is striking is that the first name is actually Alma and yet they still were barred from using the name. Beside it is a bit better than Hagar for their daughter girl.
Here the rub: it turns out that Bethlehem does appear on the list. Just not Jerusalem.
Gene H.
Perhaps you would like to introduce Sprout and Butter Sauce to my daughter, Jerusalem Artichoke.
Oh, wouldn’t this have been a fun headline:
Brussels Sprout Renamed!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Well Brussels is in the business of telling all of Europe what they can and cannot do. This is typical of tyranny. Sound familiar?
Well, I think maybe “Jerusalem” is carrying it a bit far, but overall I agree with Belgium that the government has an interest in keeping people from screwing up their kids for life with a really stupid name.
I could not find a youtube video of the example I wanted to present. And, I don’t want to do spoilers. But Janeane Garofalo delivered one of the funniest lines in the entire history of film on this particular point. It was only 5 words, but I laughed for an hour or more. I still laugh when I think of it. Here is a wiki article about the film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent_%282000_film%29
Watch it if you get the chance.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Thank you whom ever you are….
I’m going to move to Brussels and name my child “Sprout”. Just to piss them off further, I’m going to name the dog “Butter Sauce”. Unless the name is something that would directly cause harm to the child, like “Adolph Hitler Jones”? The state, any state, has no damn business dictating “acceptable” children’s names.
And “In Bruges” is a really good movie, nick.
So I guess this girl cannot be named Jerusalem because her parents came from Jerusalem, What about those family names?
Van Damme
Van de Velde
Van den Broeck
The convention is “Van” means “from / of” and afterward it is a geographic location or city.
nieuwsgierig, belachelijk en ongelooflijk tegelijk.
Oh and add Weener.
Here is a list of names which one can not use in the city of Bloomberg NY when naming a baby: Jack Mehoff. Harry Rectum. Lonnie Ringer. Melvin Harold. Kuntzerus.
Glad they are taking care of these major problems while the Middle East gets more and more psychotic daily.
And the contender for stupidity….. Are… The US because we helped force these restrictive matter after WWII…..
There is a great indy flick named, In Bruges. It is about 2 Irish hit men hiding out in Bruges, Belgium. It stars Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. The Farrell character HATES Belgium, and Bruges in particular. I would love to hear his profanity laced rant on this topic.