Would you like to call your baby Prince? Then don’t live in New Zealand, where five sets of parents were denied the chance in 2023. Every year, the Department of Internal Affairs releases a list of baby names rejected by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, with Prince topping the latest chart. Names that sound like titles are prohibited, as are those that use special characters or could be deemed offensive. It is bad luck for Jane Austen fans, as Mansfield Park’s Fanny is now on the banned list. And, for any Egyptologists considering naming their child after the goddess of wisdom, Isis is not allowed, either.
In total, 64 name registrations were rejected, including Bishop, Major, King, Empress, Queen and Princess. One baby was denied Pope and two were prevented from being called Messiah (probably for the best – that is quite a high bar to reach).
The UK tends to be less strict, although registering officers can reject names that are misleading, use special characters or could cause harm or offence. This prevented one British mother from calling her child Cyanide.
It is fascinating how names fall in and out of favour, how celebrities can send a name stratospheric and how perfectly fine names can become taboo. A sociologist once told me that we prefer names that aren’t used by anyone we know personally. This is why we tend to look back a century or so for inspiration.
The problem with that, of course, is that we all have the same idea, so a seemingly unique name is suddenly the name at nursery. If you check the list of most popular baby names in 1924, you will see a lot of them reappear in the list of most popular baby names in 2023: Ivy, Florence, George, Arthur.
Meanwhile, if popular names from the 70s seem as if they are going the way of the dodo, fear not. They will most likely be back. My prediction: 2074 will be the year of Sharon, Tracey, Gary, Ian, Wayne and maybe even Nigel, unless memories of Mr Farage get in the way. Watch this space.
• Coco Khan is a freelance writer and co-host of the politics podcast Pod Save the UK
