We’ve all heard some unique and downright bizarre baby names, but it turns out, certain names are banned by state governments, so parents can’t use them for their babies. Elon Musk and Grimes reportedly found this out when they tried to name their son X Æ A-12 in California back in 2020. The parents then changed the number 12 to the Roman numeral XII, which was acceptable to the state law.
So why do states get to weigh in on residents’ baby names? It’s because birth certificates fall under state jurisdiction, so the states get to make their own rules. These are some of the state name restrictions, according to a report from usbirthcertificates.com, a guide to obtaining vital records that’s not associated with national and state governments.
- California - Name guidelines in the Golden State include restricting names to 26 characters in the English alphabet, as Grimes and Musk learned. They also have a ban on pictographs, emojis, and obscene and derogatory names.
- Georgia - They only prohibit symbols, including accents, in baby names.
- New York - Parents are given a 30-character limit for first and middle names and a 40-character limit for last names. And the Empire State also bans numbers and symbols in names.
- Ohio - No numbers in names are allowed, but names can include hyphens, apostrophes and spaces.
- Texas - Names in the Lone Star State aren’t allowed to contain numbers and diacritical marks - symbols that tell us how to pronounce a letter. They also have a 100-character limit on first, middle and last names and each name can only be written in the English alphabet.
- Virginia - Residents can’t use numbers, symbols or other special characters, including umlauts and tildes, in names.
- A report from usbirthcertificates.com also reveals some uncommon names that people attempted to name their babies in different parts of the country, but were deemed illegal by state courts. They include King, Queen, Jesus Christ, III, Santa Claus, Majesty, Adolf Hitler, Messiah, the symbol @ and 1069.
Source: NY Post
Photo: Getty Images