Name among those most commonly refused by registrars in the past 10 years along with Lucifer, King, Princess and Prince
You can perhaps understand why officials in New Zealand might think that naming a newborn baby Lucifer is not giving it the fairest start in life. But why, as new statistics show, did they prevent 49 sets of parents from calling their child Justice, a not uncommon name in parts of Africa?
Justice was the name most often refused by New Zealand registrars in the 10 years to last June, the country's department for internal affairs said. Next on the list came Princess, with 24 thwarted attempts, King (21) and Prince (20).
Under New Zealand law babies' names cannot be offensive, too long – 100 characters is the limit – or contain religious references, which put paid to six planned little Lucifers. They are also not allowed to be self-declared titles, a clause which accounted for the Justices, lest they be confused for real judges, as well as the mini-royals. The rule also covers spelling variants, meaning Justus and Juztice were also turned down.
The only other rule breached in the top 10 was that on single-letter names – six parents chose J.
Further down the list, which was released alongside a far more sober roundup of most popular registered children's names during 2011 – Liam for boys, Ruby for girls – the ideas become even more unexpected.
Three parents chose Messiah, six lots of Roman numeral fans tried I, II or III, while one each opted for an asterisk symbol, a full stop and a "/" symbol, and one baby girl avoided being landed with Queen Victoria.
Even luckier escapes were in store for youngsters otherwise facing a life explaining that their names really are Mafia No Fear, V8, Anal or 89.
Ross McPherson, deputy registrar general for the internal affairs department, said no specific names were banned, even if officials might feel they are potentially embarrassing for the child.
"In general terms, people can register whatever names they like for their children. However, some rules do apply," McPherson said. "A name can be rejected if it might cause offence to a reasonable person, or if it is, includes or resembles an official rank or title, or if it is unreasonably long. So, one couldn't, for example, register a swear word as a name for their child or couldn't, without adequate justification, register a name of Justice, Colonel or Royal."
Some parents, it seems, are devising ever-more cunning ways to express their views. Despite debate over whether it should be permitted, 84 babies were registered last year as Nevaeh, or heaven spelled in reverse, making it the 45th most popular girls' name.
The issue of unusual names created headlines in 2008 when a New Zealand judge placed a nine-year-old girl in court guardianship so she could change her name from Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii. In a potential lesson to similarly minded parents, the court heard how the girl told people her name was K to avoid being teased.
The judge, Rob Murfitt, cited a series of other blocked names – which never made the official statistics and were thus presumably barred at an earlier stage – including Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit.