CEJ #2

Alyssa

2/4/13

Jones,Zach

Scholasticclassroom.com

Can the Government Outlaw Your Name?

Recently in Iceland a 15 year old girl finally got fed up with her “name” which wasn’t really her birth name anyway. Born with the name “ Blær” which wasn’t a registered girls name in Iceland, the government outlawed her name illegal. On all of her personal documents, she was given the name “stúlka” which means girl. In Iceland, parents select their baby’s name from a list called the Personal Names Register. They choose from 1,712 names for boys and 1,853 names for girls, and Blær wasn’t one of them. Her and her family

tried to get her name possible to use, but it was rejected because it was too “manly” of a name. After all these years, she became too fed up and decided to sue the government. She won her court case and can now legally use her given name; Blær Bjarkardóttir. Very joyous after the case closed she said, “I’m very happy. I’m glad this is over. Finally, I’ll have the name Blær in my passport.”

    I don’t think the government has any right to say your name is illegal or say that it isn’t allowed unless it’s like profanity or something. If I was Blær, I would have done the exact same thing. Growing up being called “girl” would be a pain. And besides, names can also mean special things that the government shouldn’t have power over. Like my name is Alyssa Ann. I was named Alyssa because my mom’s best friend was Melissa and she loved that name but my parents didn’t want them to be the same, so Alyssa it was.  And Anna was my grandma, but they shortened it to Ann. So my name has a special meaning to it. What if the government had made it illegal and just called me girl? Unfair and against any type of background culture. There was a slight bias, more on Blær’s side, just because the article was about how it wasn’t fair to her. And I totally agree.