This isn't so unusual. Plenty of countries have registries and regulation around naming. Iceland recently denied a passport to a girl called Harriet: <a href="http://icelandreview.com/news/2014/06/25/icelandic-girl-denied-passport-due-illegal-name" rel="nofollow">http://icelandreview.com/news/2014/06/25/icelandic-girl-deni...</a>. Iceland cited cultural preservation initiatives.<p>I've also heard of some situations in US states wherein limitations are basically a by-product of character set choices, preventing the registration of diacritics.
That name reminds me of: <a href="http://xkcd.com/327/" rel="nofollow">http://xkcd.com/327/</a><p>Anyway, the law is pretty arbitrarily applied, which I think is a problem. My parents wanted to give me the norse middle name 'hin frodi' ('the wise'), but the 'hin' was rejected as it could possibly be associated with 'hin håle', an old Swedish name for Satan, which they perceived could cause bullying in school.
This is one of these issues where there are no "right" answers, no black & white, just shades of grey.<p>For example, on one hand if you only allow normal names then you wind up hampering or completely stopping name progression/evolution/adoption. Historically names have fallen in and out of popularity every few years going as far back as records date.<p>Another troubling consequence of having a certain group of people signing off on names, is that those people have inherent (even unintended) biases. So for example if someone moves to Sweden and wants to use a family name from abroad that could be rejected for being too unusual even if it may be completely unusual where they're from.<p>On the other hand is it really in the child's best interests to be named e.g. "Hitler," "AAAAAAA," "Bobby tables," "Stupid," etc? I think if you asked people in the street they would say no most of the time.<p>It really is a complex issue with no right answer. I will say except in extreme cases I'd side more with the freedom for parents to choose rather than some draconian list. I think new and original names are healthy, even if not well received initially.
I'm all for freedom to choose names, however, some if these examples are more the child as unwitting weapon for the parents seeking redress for some perceived wrong. Let the parents take these names first, give them a year to live with it, using it daily, and if they survive, ok, grant them okay to change their child's name. Having children fight parents' naming battles seems selfish.