So interesting to read through! Thanks for sharing! Some of the reasons make sense, but others seems rather extra… not allowing names with various diacritics seems unnecessarily fussy, and not allowing names that “don’t adhere to Finnish phonetics” is pretty much what I mentioned above - excluding other languages and cultures.
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Yeah, in some cases I get it because some of the names are literally unpronounceable in Finnish because the sounds don’t exist in the language so it would be extremely impractical as a name for a Finnish speaker, but in other cases the decisions are overly strict (although if it was a name in your language or culture and you had a baby in Finland, you could still use it - pretty much if you or your partner had a non-Finnish background you’d be fine & immigrants aren’t banned from using their own names!).
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I like a lot of these! Annatar, Appelsiinikki & Ukonvaaja are really cool, though they would absolutely be GPs.
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@AStudyIn_Scarlet I’m actually now wondering if the parents were trying to use Annatar on a boy - that would go against the “no gender bending names” rule. Because otherwise it baffles me! It seems so wearable. Appelsiinikki and Ukonvaaja are definitely more GP but so fun in theory.
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That would make sense! I really like Annatar!
And these are really really cool!!!:
Aicksar, Åriz (z makes it look so cool), Caladrius (what an awesome meaning! This name went to my list so fast), Eklander, Saturnius, Tanyá (prefer this spelling 100%. I don’t like j), Ukonvaaja (the name of the ax yielded by the Finnish god of thunder, how cool).
I like these z,w,y letters! Makes the name feel way more futuristic and cool + a lot of people believe in numerology (I kinda like it too) and letters make all the difference.
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In [name_f]Canada[/name_f] (in my province at least)
- You can’t give more than 4 first names but double-barrelled names count as one so you could have 4 double-barrelled names.
- If you give your child a name but only want the nickname to be used you can’t. (e.i. You put [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] as the name of your child but want them to only be referred as [name_u]Alex[/name_u], in this case you’d have to put [name_u]Alex[/name_u] as the first name instead or else the child’s name will be [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] and the nickname could be used by family/friends only)
- Last names are allowed as FNs and initials as well but only if they come from the parents
- Obviously embarrassing, ridiculous or offensive names aren’t allowed
There are probably more rules like numbers maybe but many many names are allowed and I’ve seen some really… interesting ones 
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Is this enforced? I almost can’t imagine it is. Registering a name is a legal act, sure, but who would police what you go by in everyday life? How?
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@Wandarine from what I know and understood tho it’s taken lightly most of the time but for example, in school, the teacher will only refer to you by your legal FN, unless you go and ask them to call you by your preferred name (if it’s Alex/Alexander like my example, the chances of the teacher saying yes might be low). It’s not common here to have people go by their nickname only and I never realized that until I saw the article about the naming law. But as I said I feel like it’s not that serious because I’ve never seen or heard of a teacher (I’m saying teacher because it’s the only example I can think of right now) be mad at someone for asking to be called by their nickname you know but also I feel like it’s so uncommon so people are okay with only having their friends and family calling them by their nickname. I don’t know if that made sense, I hope it did. It’s kinda hard to explain because there are so many nuances.
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This is so interesting! My parents, siblings, and I all have longer first names that none of us go by; Alexander/Alex is actually my brother’s name. I guess my dad uses his legal FN sometimes because of academic publishing, but we all go by nicknames otherwise.
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I just double checked where [name_u]France[/name_u] was standing now:
- regular restrictions to protect the child, so nothing ridiculous or vulgar
- if the child has only the last name of one of their parents, they can’t have the last name of the second parent as a first
- only letters from the [name_u]French[/name_u] alphabet so no other diacritic signs, numbers etc. But you can use a space or a dash for double barrel names.
- it has to respect the right of other people to protect their last name, which sounds odd but apparently it basically means you can’t use a celebrity’s last name?
- you’re allowed to make names up as long as they are not deemed to be against the child’s best interest.
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(Omg, Whimsyberry is such a gorgeous name, I just had to point that out 
)
This nickname thing is interesting in general to me. A lot of people are picking a baby name + nickname here. [name_f]Do[/name_f] parents write it down somewhere? In my experience, a nickname is a very spontaneous thing. Your nickname might have nothing to do with your actual name
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I’m also confused. Forgive me if this is a culturally insensitive question, but is this a Quebecois law or something? There must be loads of older Anglo-Canadian men around who go by nicknames like [name_m]Dave[/name_m] and [name_m]Steve[/name_m], surely.
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@danilib I guess it’s just not a thing here because I know many Alexanders (the french version of that name) and they all go by their full FNs, if they ever get called [name_u]Alex[/name_u] it would be by their friends. That’s my cousin’s name and we all call him by his full FN. Idk if it’s just that it so happened to be that the people around me don’t go by their nickname but I’ve never seen it happen. Like yes sure we call some of my friends by their nickname but it’s just us who call them by their nickname. Does that make sense? haha I’m trying my best to explain it as best as I can
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Aw thank you!!
Here parents are only picking a name (the FN) and a nickname might come along later but the nickname won’t be an official name, like it isn’t written anywhere, and if a nickname comes along later, as I said, only friends and family use it.
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@choupette That’s a good question, I actually don’t know. It might be because my province is weird and different but I’d have to do some research on that
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@whimsyberry it’s not a rule in [name_u]France[/name_u] but teachers or other authority figures wouldn’t call you by a nickname, nn are for family and peers, they are considered as pertaining to familiar language so it would be inappropriate for a teacher above preschool level to use your nn (and even then they would only, maybe, use a shorter version of your name like [name_u]Theo[/name_u] for [name_m]Theodore[/name_m], and only if the parents introduced the kid to the teacher as such).
You also don’t use your nn in professional settings unless you’re close enough with the person, or you work in a very informal field.
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@Eirime Yes that sounds pretty much exactly like how it is here as well!
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