The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#2Anachronistic, comically out of date, and in this day and age, repellent? That a boy cannot be called "Sue" strikes an American as a fundamental attack on personal rights.
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#3Anachronistic, comically out of date, and in this day and age, repellent? That a boy cannot be called "Sue" strikes an American as a fundamental attack on personal rights.
I dunno, having to kowtow to a pearl clutching gerontocracy seems pretty American to me.
This example in Finland seems pretty tame compared to America’s current effort to keep their culture “pure.”
Not so sure Americans should be leaning into “freer than thee” rhetoric.
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#4Anachronistic, comically out of date, and in this day and age, repellent? That a boy cannot be called "Sue" strikes an American as a fundamental attack on personal rights.
The problem is that "let's leave everything to the free market and have no rules" is appealing to large powerful cultures like the American one because they know that will favor them. It's less appealing to smaller cultures because it won't. It's kind of the reason places like Quebec have their rules like having to provide French language shop signs even though to Americans (and even English-speaking Canadians) that seems like a violation of the rights of the shop owner.
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#5Anachronistic, comically out of date, and in this day and age, repellent? That a boy cannot be called "Sue" strikes an American as a fundamental attack on personal rights.
I dunno, having to kowtow to a pearl clutching gerontocracy seems pretty American to me.
Finland seems pretty tame compared to America’s current effort to keep their culture “pure.”
Not so sure Americans should be leaning into “We are freer than thee” rhetoric.
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#6Anachronistic, comically out of date, and in this day and age, repellent? That a boy cannot be called "Sue" strikes an American as a fundamental attack on personal rights.
The problem is that "let's leave everything to the free market and have no rules" is appealing to large powerful cultures like the American one because they know that will favor them. It's less appealing to smaller cultures because it won't. It's kind of the reason places like Quebec have their rules like having to provide French language shop signs even though to Americans (and even English-speaking Canadians) that…
But, you own name? Not your own choice? Is there any way to be more intrusive?
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that "let's leave everything to the free market and have no rules" is appealing to large powerful cultures like the American one because they know that will favor them. It's less appealing to smaller cultures because it won't. It's kind of the reason places like Quebec have their rules like having to provide French language shop signs even though to Americans (and even English-speaking Canadians) that…
But, you own name? Not your own choice? Is there any way to be more intrusive?
Traditionally our birth name isn’t our choice. And rarely do people change it. In America it’s not a trivial expense. Effectively the same “rule” exists: people have one name chosen by others.
Just because it may not be codified on paper doesn’t mean a reasonably similar organic habit doesn’t exist.
As a kid, everyone around you determines who you are to an extent by the options for learning they provide.
There’s a lot of laws that codify organic habit that will appear to reasonably occur without an explicit law.
Only in America would your name be a bigger personal freedom concern than child political prisoners no one brings up, or dying of preventable illness from lack of healthcare.
Let’s ogle how backwards Iceland is.
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
But, you own name? Not your own choice? Is there any way to be more intrusive?
Traditionally our birth name isn’t our choice. And rarely do people change it. In America it’s not a trivial expense. Effectively the same “rule” exists: people have one name chosen by others. Just because it may not be codified on paper doesn’t mean a reasonably similar organic habit doesn’t exist. As a kid, everyone around you determines who you are to an extent by the options for learning they provide. There’s a l…
Really? You're jumping from "Bureaucracy intrudes into personal choices", straight to "child political prisoners"?
Sounds a little like a desperate attempt to explain away a silly old committee.
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#9Anachronistic, comically out of date, and in this day and age, repellent? That a boy cannot be called "Sue" strikes an American as a fundamental attack on personal rights.
We have a list of approved legal names. (I know a guy called Sasha. His parents wanted to name him Sasha, but were told that isn't an approved name, it's a nickname. So his parents named him Alexandre, and everyone who knows him calls him Sasha.)
Given that in the US, at least one boy whose parents named him Marion grew up and subsequently preferred to be known as John, I'm not convinced having the list is a substantial infraction on parental rights.
Re: The curious, three-person committee in Iceland that approves and rejects names
#10Anachronistic, comically out of date, and in this day and age, repellent? That a boy cannot be called "Sue" strikes an American as a fundamental attack on personal rights.
It is quite common for names to need administrative approval in Europe. Rarely is that an obstacle, it's just so that people don't name their kid "Fuck", "X Æ A-12" or something else that could cause them to have problems in life (that also can apply to foreign language names – the US is very liberal in this aspect, being made up of immigrants, but many European countries aren't).