The Hadschi Halef Omar Ban

Nickname for a German law forbidding multi-barreled surnames.

A German court recently upheld a ban on couples combining their names to form interminably long surnames. Stephanie Kerchner reported for Time:

Critics of the verdict — dubbed the “Hadschi Halef Omar ban” by the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, in reference to a character invented by the popular adventure-story writer Karl May calledHadschi Halef Omar Ben Hadschi Abul Abbas Ibn Hadschi Dawuhd al Gossarah — say it does not necessarily prevent long names, since it applies only to names conjoined by a hyphen. A name like Schulze zur Wiesche-Meyer auf der Heide would still be allowed, notes Götz [a judge and family law expert], even though it’s seven words long.

In keeping with a number of countries, Germany also regulates first names. According to Kerchner, “parents can choose any name for their child as long as it does not go against order and decency.”

The decision on which names to accept and which to reject is generally left to the local registrar, but that decision can be contested in court. And sometimes the court’s ruling can seem rather arbitrary. While the names Stompie, Woodstock and Grammophon have been rejected by German courts in the past, the similarly creative parents of Speedy,Lafayette and Jazz were granted their name of choice.

In Sweden, a couple fighting to name their son Q – not, it seems, in homage to James Bond’s exasperated gadget purveyor – recently appealed to the country’s supreme court to approve their choice. According to The Telegraph:

Q’s parents are hoping that they can benefit from a reform to the legislation last year, allowing parents to use previously banned names.

The reforms followed a political row over arbitrary decisions by the authorities.

In one 2007 case parents were forbidden to name their daughterMetallica after the heavy metal rock band while another couple were allowed to name their son Google, after the internet search engine.

In a 1996 protest at the law a couple tried and failed to call their son “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116” – pronounced Albin.

(In 2008, a judge in New Zealand ordered that a nine-year-old girl be made a ward of court so that the name bestowed upon her by her parents – Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii – could be changed.)