Blaer and the right of self-expression in Iceland.

Blaer is the chosen name of a 15 year old girl in Iceland. It is the name her mother chose for her. Yet, in Iceland, this name has been forbidden because it is not on the official list of permissible names. Young Blaer is now having to sue her own government for the right to be called by her own name.

This might seem like a minor matter, but I find this case very unsettling. It seems to me that a government has no place interfering in the expressive choices of parents and children alike, when it comes to their own names. In Iceland, not even grown adults are allowed to choose names for themselves outside of the official list. This smacks of a kind of repression George Orwell would have remarked upon, had he known about it.

The right to self-expression, as long as it does not harm others, should be basic to all peoples everywhere – without exception. A government attempting to curtail and control the expressive choices of its people, is a government that has gotten out of control. If I were Blaer I would do something very direct to protest this matter, when I grew up: I would emigrate and make the reason for emigration into a news story, internationally – for that would assuredly embarrass this daft little government.

Apparently, Germany and Denmark also restrict name choices. Again, I see no justification for doing this. The reason given is that it prevents parents naming children with embarrassing names. That seems a rather slight justification since if a child has been given a silly name – that child should then be able to change it, later in life, to something more acceptable to them. At no point, is there any justification for the curtailment of expression, by these arguments.

When my wife and I came to choose the names of our children, we chose each with great care. Though others will not know it and we are not going to inform them, each of our children’s names has a personal and a universal meaning. They are literally little stories or descriptive phrases that we have related to each of our children, for personal reasons. They follow a unique schema and consist of a mixture of Gaelic, Arabic, and Latinate names, that has no duplicates, anywhere, on Earth. The names are absolutely unique (though many people now insist on pretending to be one of our children, online...they are not him). Had we been Icelandic, German or Danish, we would not have been granted this freedom. We would have had to select a name common to many others, one without the unique meaning we have written into the names of our children. That strikes me as wrong. The right to express oneself, one’s views, one’s beliefs, ones thoughts, and feelings is absolutely fundamental to the basic freedoms all humans should enjoy everywhere. Those three countries are disallowing those freedoms to their citizens. This is a denial of what I view to be a basic human right.

I do not know if we shall have any more children – but if we do, the names of those children shall tell a tale like no other. They will bear a name that no-one before them has ever borne. Those names shall be created just for them – and that is how it should be. All parents should have the right to name their children, in whatever way they please. If some names cause others offence, then that is an acceptable price to pay for the preservation of a basic freedom of expression.

It seems to me that Iceland, Germany and Denmark have something to learn about the value of self-expression for society. I wonder what other freedoms of expression they control, by means direct and indirect? If you know, please write below.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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