New Zealand Introduces Ban on Weird Baby Names

By Molly Corum: Subscribe to Molly's

July 22, 2011 2:26 PM EDT

(FLICKR/ Christina Rutz)

(FLICKR/ Christina Rutz)

Parents of Lucifer, Messiah, General and King- New Zealand is none too happy with you.

The country's Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has drawn the line on parents looking to use unconventional monikers on their children.

The country released a list of banned baby names that went into effect immediately. The list includes names such as Baron, Bishop, Duke, General, Judge, Justice, King, Knight and Mr. for being too similar to titles.

89, 4real, C, D, I and T were also rejected.

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The agency banned names involving asterisks, commas, periods and other punctuation marks.

The new regulations may be a response to the attention the country received in 2008 for allowing names such as Benson and Hedges for a set of twins, as well as Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter.

The remote island nation is not the first to institute strict laws for naming.  In Sweden, name choices are subject to a naming law. So far, the committee has had the duty of rejecting such names as Superman, Metallica and Elvis as well the name Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced Albin, of course).

Anyone planning on following the celebrity trend of bizarre baby names, stay away from New Zealand, lest your request to name your child Apple, Seven, Banjo or Free be rejected.

This article is copyrighted by International Business Times, the business news leader
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