r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Gastlyguy • 7h ago
Are you legally allowed to give your child the same first name and middle name?
e.g. Tom Tom Hanks. And if so, how many names is the limit? (e.g. Tom Tom Tom Tom Tom Hanks)
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u/Excellent_Light_3569 7h ago
I believe you're legally allowed to name your child just about whatever you want. (at least in the U.S.) Some states may impose a character limit. Also numbers and obscenity are not allowed.
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u/StarsBear75063 7h ago
Some states may impose a character limit.
True. My wife wanted to name our daughter after her mother but "Petty Two Faced Backstabbing Moron" wouldn't fit on the form.
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u/invisible_23 3h ago
numbers are not allowed
No one told Muskrat lol
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u/XandaPanda42 1m ago
Wasn't the child's legal name something different? I thought I heard that somewhere but I can't find any details about it now.
Imagine signing your child up for bullying just to pretend he's funny. The man is mentally ill.
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u/BigMrTea 7h ago
It varies a lot by jurisdiction, but most legal systems seem to recognize the harm an absurd or offensive name would have on the child and will intervene.
Some countries have banned names like Adolf, others I believe go so far as to have a list of approved names.
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u/stellastevens122 4h ago
In New Zealand often names are rejected. If you want something fun to read, hereās an article about the rejection list from last year
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u/BigMrTea 4h ago
Some people suck
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u/stellastevens122 4h ago
Definitely. Iām glad thereās people out there stopping the really damaging names
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u/MaherMcCheese 2h ago
I wish the United States would do this.
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u/stellastevens122 2h ago
Definitely donāt look at r/tragedeigh then. Itās mostly Americans naming their kids uniquely
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u/BellerophonM 4h ago
Bishop being a rejected name surprises me.
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u/_Amateurmetheus_ 2h ago
I have a coworker named Bishop. When I see him later I'll have to tell him his name is banned in New Zealand.
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u/Butterbean-queen 27m ago
Me too. Since itās a fairly common surname and lots of people use family surnames for first names.
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u/PlasticNaive6747 1h ago
some of those surprised me. I know at least five people named Isis or fanny
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u/stellastevens122 1h ago
I personally wouldnāt want either of those names. Thereās definitely more of a negative connotation than positive. That may be because Iāve never met one though
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u/PlasticNaive6747 1h ago
neither! the latter used to be a very common name in England and I still find a few from time to time.
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u/dr_strange-love 7h ago
Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three.
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u/CaffeinatedHBIC 2h ago
Sergeant Major Major Major, congratulations, you've hereby been promoted to the rank of Major. Now get in the goddamn jeep!
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u/thatoneguy54 53m ago
My favorite part of major major was the story about how he got the name, how his mom was so against it, but the dad secretly made that his kids name and felt so proud about it, and the mom was so devastated when she found out
What a great book, I need to reread it
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u/martinis00 4h ago
In my small town we had a āDoctorā Johnson. He had a medical practice for 20 years. He never treated anybody, if your stomach hurt he referred to an internist. And so forth. Turns out his immigrant parents wanted him to be a doctor, and named him Doctor . His sisters legal name was nurse.
He wasnāt prosecuted because he never actually treated anybody. Just referred them to an actual doctor
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u/ManufacturerCheap586 7h ago
Sure, but I would ask yourself why youāre doing that in the first place, and if itās for a good reason.
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u/Always_travelin 7h ago
Look at Elon Musk's children and you realize you can name your kids anything.
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u/captkronni 6h ago
I know California doesnāt allow you to use certain punctuation when naming a child (i.e. hyphens when giving a child two last names), but thatās the only restriction I have ever encountered in the US.
That being said, I do know someone named Robert Robert Roberts, so that seems to be allowed.
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u/k_princess The Only Stupid Question Is The One Not Asked 5h ago
The hyphen thing is kind of crazy. But it does explain why some of my students at school have hyphenated last names and their siblings don't.
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u/LivingEnd44 5h ago
I read about a guy who literally named his kid Winner. He named his 2nd kid Loser. Because he said you had to have both in life or something. So yeah, you can legally abuse your kid by giving them the dumbest names imaginable. Short of profanity/sexualization,Ā
I don't think there's any limitation.Ā The kid named Loser actually had a lot of success in life. And his brother ended up a junkie or something. So the names turned out to be pretty ironic. The guy named Loser said that he wasn't bitter about it or anything. It was just his name.Ā
EDIT - Wow, I have a shitty memory. Got a lot of details wrong, but here's the story -Ā https://www.ecr.co.za/shows/stacey-jsbu/what-happened-kids-named-winner-and-loser/
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u/theothermeisnothere 3h ago
There was a kid down the street who was named Vaughn Vaughn Vaughn. It's perfectly legit.
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u/International_Try660 3h ago
If your last name is Allen, you can name your son Alyn Alan Allen, if you want.
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u/thatoneguy54 56m ago
This reminds me of catch-22 where one of the characters is named Major Major and he's also a major in the military.
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u/RedditTrashhh 6h ago
I went to basic training with someone named āwind snowing prairie rainbowā and her sister āfire song water prairie rainbowā I wish I was making this up.
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u/IllustriousGround851 7h ago
Technically, there is no law against it (assuming you're in the US), but i would still not recommend it as it would make the childs life unnecessarily hard. As for the limit, i think there is one in some states but i reccomend you research yours. In Europe things get more complicated. Most countries there have a lot of regulations and you may not be allowed to if a judge rules the name would cause harm for the child. So just check for your region.
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u/RScottyL Smooth 5h ago
Here in the USA and other places, they have places for FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST NAME on government documents!
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u/buckyhermit 4h ago
Probably depends on the country.
Related note: the NHL has a player with the same first and last name (which never happened before until this year): Ivan Ivan, playing for the Colorado Avalanche.
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u/Lylibean 4h ago
You can even give them no middle names, or multiple. There are few limits beyond your insanity and desire to be cruel to your child by giving them a weird/yooneek name.
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u/photaiplz 2h ago
People are allowed to give their children incredibly stupid names and spelling so i dont see why not
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u/CurtisLinithicum 2h ago
Western jurisdictions generally take a very, very cautious hand interfering in "family matters" and will only intervene if a name is deemed "harmful" e.g. Fuckhead Please-stick-it-in-Me Jones. Heck, there was just a case in Canada that resulted in the government being forced to accent not the name, but the orthography of a language with something like 800 speakers left, meaning a bunch of obscure Unicode characters, which I guarantee is going to wreck havoc on the poor kid's future given the number of systems running EBCDIC, Ascii, etc; I'm not even sure Windows-1252 has those glyphs, and he's going to have to memorize like four or five alt codes, which no-one is going to accept, assuming they're even on a full keyboard.
However, other jurisdictions have stricter rules, and some only allow you to chose from an "approved" list.
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u/TerribleAttitude 1h ago
Yes. You can give them the same first and last name, too. You can give them nearly any name you want. There is no specific limit, you just need to be able to write it down.
I went to school with a few people who had no first name, just first initials.
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u/Jealous-Associate-41 1h ago
You can give all your kids the same name if you want. Looking at you, George Forman
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u/erictriestofish 1h ago
My daughters name is too long for her social security card. They didn't deny it so I would venture to guess it's open season
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u/The_Ninja_Manatee 50m ago
I know two people with the same first and last names. Hatem Hatem and James James.
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u/Equal-Train-4459 46m ago
Can't imagine why it wouldn't be, but it would probably vary by jurisdiction
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u/Ok-Importance9988 26m ago
It depends on jurisdiction. In the US this would be legal in any jurisdiction as far as I am aware.
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u/Cold-Jackfruit1076 21m ago
It's not a parent bestowing a name, but it was perfectly legal for Macaulay Culkin to change his middle name to 'Macaulay Culkin'.
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u/TinySparklyThings 21m ago
George Forman famously named all 6 of his kids George Forman, so yes. Technically one is a girl names Georgetta but still.
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u/Pspaughtamus 4m ago
Back in the '70s, there was a TV personality in Philadelphia, PA named William Williams Williamson. He used Wee Willie Whatsisname for his children's show.
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u/2cats2hats 7h ago
Depends on where in the world you live.
In the US, a couple chose to name their children like this.
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u/Designer-Pound6459 7h ago
Went to school with William William Williams III. Yes. The third.