Friday, January 4, 2013

Icelandic Girl With Illegal Name- Kennedi Mayes

A 15 year old Icelandic girl isn't allowed to legally use her name. Her mother named her Blaer, which means "light breeze" in Icelandic. In Iceland, there is a list of approved names that a child can be given to keep kids from having embarrassing names. The priest who baptized Blaer, told her  mother that he'd mistakenly thought Blaer was on the name roster, when it wasn't. Her mother said that she knew a Blaer whose name was approved in the 70s. When her mother, Bjork Eidsdottir, submitted a request for Blaer's name to be legal, she was turned down because "Blaer takes on a masculine article," so on all of her legal documents,  '"Stulka" — or "girl"' is on the name line. Blaer loves her name and she can't even be recognized by it. Eidsdottir is willing to go all the way to Supreme Court because she feels that this is unjust. '"So many strange names have been allowed, which makes this even more frustrating because Blaer is a perfectly Icelandic name," Eidsdottir said. "It seems like a basic human right to be able to name your child what you want, especially if it doesn't harm your child in any way."'

I feel that this is unfair. I understand there are some cases where the name is a bit extreme, but I think Blaer is perfectly fine, especially if the girl has been going 15 years with it. I think the name committee is taking this too far and being too harsh. Blaer isn't a child anymore, and if a mother and daughter are going to so much trouble to get a name approved, especially when the name is as simple as Blaer, a little slack should be cut and the name should be approved.

My source:
http://news.yahoo.com/icelandic-girl-fights-her-own-name-074758814.html

5 comments:

  1. That's entirely unfair! People should be able to name their children as they see fit, not as some list does.

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  2. I think that this is ridiculous. People should have the right to name their children anything they want to.

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  3. Amaria Stern
    I feel that this is far from fair. The government has control over certain things, but naming a child that is not their own shouldn't be one of them!

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  4. How can the government do that?!

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  5. This is ridiculous! Naming a child should be up to the family, not the government. How unfair!!

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