A rose by any other name

The UK government has finally moved on the vexed issue of parents who burden their children for life with inappropriate names. For example we have this from Gleena Simmins, mother of three year old toddler Treezer Green.

“What I never realised at the time was that the name Treezer would cause such problems. Before he were born like, somebody on social media told me it was the name of an ancient environment warrior who looked after trees and animals and such. They said it was a really ancient name from like before Hitler. I never knew they made it up. I unfriended them dead quick but it’s like too late.”

There are other examples, such as this one from Moorla Snipe, mother of two year old toddler Dunno Mait.

“I just liked the name Dunno because it sounded all friendly like and I thought it might help at school later on. Like at football matches where they call each other names like Johnno or Robbo and suchlike. I thought it was a good idea.”

There are numerous other examples such as Blymee O’Reilly where misguided parents have given way to a momentary enthusiastic desire to assign their son or daughter a striking name, just as they assign a gender.

With this in mind the UK government has sponsored initial research into an app designed to screen out inappropriate names and names which could cause future embarrassment. It is not the government’s intention to assign official names, although it is thought that in a very small number of cases this may be necessary.