New Government Regulation on Children Names
22April 3, 2013 by Aleksandra Łuczak
This post has been prepared by Sara Synowiec –
Kozminski University student
It will be possible to give a child a neutral or a diminutive name – government prepares new regulations.
Parents will be able to give their child a neutral or a diminutive name in the near future. Government prepares new regulations as The Rzeczpospolita reported. Names such as Fifi, Kuba or Zosia will be right to place them in birth certificates.
It has not been possible to give a name which precludes distinguishing sex of a child such as Fifi, Angel or Sasha which has been appearing in Poland increasingly lately. Now law still forbids it. Diminutive names or shortened forms of them are also unacceptable. As a result ‘Kuba’ cannot replace ‘Jakub’ and ‘Zosia’ is not an alternative form to ‘Zofia”.
Government prepares wide-ranging changes which have to liberalize procedure of giving names. Names not commonly attributed to only one of the sexes will become permissible.
Malgorzata Piotrak – Chief of Citizenship Department (MSW) – said – that these changes are necessary because of the increasing number of marriages with foreigners and appearance of un-Polish names which do not univocally specify the sex of a child. It corresponds with an opinion that the choice of a name should be the privilege of parents to a greater extent.
What is your attitude to the above changes? Would you like, one day, to name your child Fifi or just Zosia instead of Zofia?
Have your say!
Category discrimination, family law, Poland | Tags:
I think this is right thing to do. This should not go in the wrong direction like naming a child “Cow”. It is still a new topic and needs to be developed. Every parent should be able to name the child as he wants.
Hello,
Ihave to admit that I didn’t know about those proposed regulations . However it’s good to know that :). I think that the explanation given by the Chief of Citizenship Department is quite reasonable. At least in terms of marriage with foreigners.
However, i find strange the idea of releasing diminutives. It’s almost unnatural idea. Do not mention that there are no rational arguments beyond whims of parents. Nor do I think that in the future children that gonna be owners of those names, will be delighted. Ex. “Fifi” sounds like the name of the dog …
Giving the name for a child is an individual thing of the parents. Current
law assumes limitations in this area, but if someone wants to give a child a
unique name may apply to the Council of Polish Language and get a positive
feedback. It seems, however, that the total freedom is also not advisable.
We all should remember that the name of the person is given for life.
Parents should not satisfy only their needs by giving the child the original
name. In the future, it may find out that our son named Hiacynt might have
a problem with being president of the bank in adult life. If the bill comes
into force, will remain only to count on common sense of the parents.
In my opinion everyone should have a right to give own child unique name for ex. which is popular in other country.
However, parents should choose the name adequat to child’s sex and which would not cause troubles in adult life- specially at work.
If the Bill comes into force, many grown ups will change their “very unique” names- I bet.
This is an awesome new regulation.I believe parents should make this choice solely on their own. For me it’s hard to understand why the government would even want to tell you how to name your child. I don’t have kids yet, but imagine a mother who went threw hours of intense labor, pain and stress to deliver her baby. Doesn’t she deserve the right to choose whatever name she likes? In our contemporary society I believe people are intentioned to make their own choices especially when it’s their child’s name. For instance, if we take a look at how the Americans name their children “Crystal, April, Jamie(which is both a male and female name) and so on”, and they never seem to have any issues with this problem. Happily the Polish government is wise enough to let these sorts f minor problems go, and the focus on the major ones.
My daughter Julianna was named after my grandmother. I wanted her name to be spelled with one N – Juliana. But there is no such name in polish first names list and officer of USC did not agree to the name JULIANA. I didn’t want her to be another Julia like hundreds of girls in her age. Now I have to explain to everyone that Julia and Julianna are different names. But they still call her Julia. Even though my daughter introduces herself as Julianka. I will always regret that her name is spelled with double N.
In my opinion by this regulations parents will have a greater choice among names for their children. After all, it can be understood as additional names. Parents, who will be fancy in this idea will give their children a neutral or diminutive names. Those parents, who won’t be interested in these regulations will not be forced to give their children such names. If I have children in the future I surely would take the opportunity of this privilege.
I think that this is a good regulation. The best argument is that the number of marriages with foreigners is increasing and we should let them choose the name for their children (although maybe this name will not be popular in Poland)>
On the other hand we should know that we have a lot of weird people in Poland and we should not be surprised if in maybe 20 years there will be a lot of ‘Kubuś’ or ‘Mareczek’ on the streets.
So in my opinion this regulation should be prepared very carefully but in general it is a good idea to enter such a regulation in our country.
In my opinion puting foreign names in list of names should be legal only if 1 of the parent is foreigner. Think about Jessica Kowalska. It just sound silly. In my opinion every girl’s name who was born in Poland should end with an “a”. It just makes sense. As Mateusz said, people are known from crossing the line very often, if you give them a finger they will take whole hand, so there must be some specific resrictions about this regulation. Giving your daughter a name Magda insteed of Magdalena is fine, but Fifi instead of Filip? Imagine being an 30-year-old man and introducing yourself on the job interview “I’m Fifi Nowak”…
In my opinion this is not a good solution. Anyone who moves to another country should respect the customs and laws in the country. Let’s put in a situation of a child who is exposed to stress, if different from the usual bore the name. Let’s put in a situation of a teenager who will be subjected to jokes because of its strange name. No law can replace common sense of parents !
On the one hand, I agree with these new regulations which entitle parents to give their child/children any name. On the other hand, we must remember what is going on abroad, where children have names like for example: Maroccan Scott (the name of apartment in which he was born in), Brooklyn (one of borough of New York City), Tu Morrow (tomorrow), Bear Blu or Diva Thin Muffin. It is just a beginning of thousands of stupid names which certainly expose children as a laughing stock. I am convinced that it will happen if some person has a name Mokotów or Ciasteczko. I strongly disagree with an opinion that we should difference diminutive name from neutral name. Zofia and Zosia are the same names!
Of course, it is horrible that children are going to pay for stupidity of their parents. But it is how word look like nowadays. History which uwzetka told us, shows that this liberal regulations are necessary. Name that we want to give our child is not on the list? It doesn’t mean the name is wrong or stupid. And we want to be treated like modern country, so we should act like one. Country legislators should assume their citizens are acting rational. And that is why we don’t have dozens of stupid regulations (as in North Korea about citizens haircut).
In my opinion this whole regulation is VERY silly. First of all children will have to pay for stupidity and ambition of their parents even more then before. Parents were calling their children Tristan or Izolda , that was really awkward. As far as I know this regulation actually allows parents to name their children whatever they want unless it is offending, gross etc.. so parent can name their children like Bee, Pink, Bear etc… also the argument that these changes are necessary because of the increasing number of marriages with foreigners and appearance of un-Polish names which do not univocally specify the sex of a child. Does it means that if one day we will have many muslims in our country we should change our “national” religion to moslem ?
I think it’s a good regulation, but it has to be used wisely by parents. It’s easy to pick a name but it might be hard for a kid in the future. In addition, it’s a really good thing for international relationships. Thanks to this regulation they can name their child in accordance with their culture.
In my opinion parents should have right to name their childer however they like except when name will hurt child in future.
On the other hand most of current regulations about naming childeren is to protect them from theirs parents stupidity.
What’s more anyone who moves to another country should respect laws and traditions of this country.
Giving a suitable name your child is almost the same as the setting of his identity. Name it name, which we use by whole life, so, it’s obliged to be thought over and serious, but first of all, it isn’t obliged to be ordinary usage of this form and applicable rather as nickname. It’s good to think about the universality of the name to his pronunciation wasn’t difficult to foreigners. Most importantly, the choice for the good of the child.
In my opinion its a good regulation. We should have possibility to name kids as we want to. Now in Poland you must have normal and completly not different from other kids name. Some people are thinking that parents will create some stupid and funny name but I dont think so. I really would like to have some new in my mobile not just 12 Ola’s 16 Peter’s etc. Names should be different as we are different.
Every parent should have the right to name his/hers child like he wants to. Of course they should also be smoe boundaries. As we all know human imagination knows no limits:) As for me I don’t think I would like to be called “Idiot” or “Dog” or similar names. Parents have to take into consideration a fact that even if they find a given name interesting their child may not share their opinion. But beeing serious, I think that there are more important issues that our government should deal with. From the begining people ought to have free choice in naming their children.
Yeah, well, if we’re talking about the change of name to Zofia- Zosia. I think this is very natural as a child at the age of 5 years called Zosia or Zosieńka, and at the age of 60 years called Zofia.
I’m not sure if this idea is so great. Certainly, the idea arouses strong emotions. But is this really extend the liberty of parents or succumbing to a fashion? After this exchange will be the so-called “boom” of the diminutive names. Just like when it was broadcast old Polish names like Władysław, Stanisław or Eugenia.
Parents should be able to choose to call their child what they like. This is individual thing, and it’s not of our business. But giving the name of the child, parents should also think about the child’s future. For instance, donning your newborn boy with a girly sounding name could mean behavioral problems later in life. And unique baby names that only your child will have can be a hardship too.
Thinking of giving name to a child I initially think about negative consequences in relation to that person. Having a diffrent name can be seen as anomaly among other children and cause troubles. I personally would not like to stand out from a group because of my name. From the other side it can be also considered as a good change because of cultural diversity in society. People of different origin or custom should have the right of giving their children a name in accordance with their will. Depending on point of view, this situation can be appraised differently.
I think that parents should have right to name their children as they want, but this should not go to the wrong direction. The name must be appropriate to the child’s sex and it can’t cause trouble in their adult life.