Jesus gets thumbs up but God and Allah fall foul of name ban

NORMALLY you won’t find a boy named Sue in Sweden.

There are laws about such things, not just in Sweden but also in several other EU countries.

But court actions by individuals are chipping away at this state of affairs. Recently parents won the right to call their child Q, but another couple were refused the right to call their son Allah. The rule, which is policed by the Swedish Tax Authority, says that names that can give offence or be seen to cause discomfort for the bearer, be a swear word, describe genitalia or be similar to a surname may not be used.

They decided that names such as God, Allah or the Devil would offend people but that Jesus for instance is normal – possibly because it’s common enough in Spain for instance.

But the tax authorities lost their attempt to prevent a child being called Token. Her parents said it would be just a middle name and that to them it had the English language meaning of “gift”. The courts, however, decided the name could be used, even though in Swedish it could mean “fool”.

Winning the right to call someone Q was considered a breakthrough and opened the door to people using letters. The decision to allow Q as a name was quickly followed by a girl who wanted to be called A-C rather than Anna Cristina.

But a girl called Sophia who wanted to give herself “Dark Knight” as a middle name was refused. She really liked the film of that name but the authorities said it sounded too much like the surname Knight.

And while one couple were refused permission to call their little daughter Elvis, another won the battle to call their little girl Metallica. It sounded too much like a heavy metal band the authorities said, but were over ruled by the courts. Changing last names is also an issue in Sweden but recently the media reported that last year there were close to 8,000 requests. Some just want to change the spelling and some women want to revert to their unmarried names.

Couples where neither partner wants to change their name to that of the other are adopting completely new names. Some are old family names but others are made up.

But the issue of names has become even more complex as a result of gender choices. In Sweden, the personal number of identity cards clearly identify the holder as either male or female, even if the first name does not.

A male cross-dresser made headlines when he tried to change his name from Jan-Agren to Madeleine. He has used the name for the last 20 years, pointing out that it makes more sense given his lifestyle. The law insists on boys’ names for boys and girls’ names for girls in case it would cause discomfort for the bearer. But Madeleine pointed out that this was not the case for him. The issue is causing a lot of hardship for trans-sexuals, even when they undergo sex-change surgery and don’t look anything like their name suggests. This has resulted in all kinds of problems including police being called when bouncers, banks and others request to see ID and believe the card to be stolen. A Swedish church group has decided to let people identify themselves as female, male or other. The Language Council of Sweden is considering the best word for the third gender – “it” or “one” or “hen” – between “hon” for she and “han” for he.

It makes you happy that in Ireland you are what you are known as and that if you want to change your name legally you can do so easily enough.