There are plenty of names you could describe as being sweet, but Nutella takes that all to a new level. For better or for worse however, the baby name inspired by a nutty household chocolate spread has been banned by a court in France.
The court decided that such a name would risk ridicule in the future and hence it was wrong to name the child ‘Nutella’. “It is contrary to the child’s interest to have a name that can only lead to teasing or disparaging thoughts,” ruled the judge, but is Nutella such a bad name after all?
It is only right to think about the consequences of a name, as most people keep their first name their whole lives. If your name happens to be something like John or Sarah, chances are you won’t get the same raised eyebrows that if you were called ‘@’ – a name rejected in in China.
I don’t feel however that ‘Nutella’ would be as bad as the court thinks. It cannot be denied how mean school children can be against certain names, but before school age such a name is more likely to cause confusion rather than outrage. In a school environment, you don’t really need a name like Nutella to be teased. A school kid can always find something to laugh at.
Something new and strange isn’t necessarily a bad thing anyway. Popular names change over time, and before we know it maybe every other new family will want to name their baby Nutella.
Nutella isn’t exactly even the most ridiculous name when compared to some names that have been approved. Take, for example, little baby Metallica from Sweden. Even with Sweden’s relatively high amount of love for heavy hitting riffs, Metallica was apparently at first refused a passport. Also from Sweden, is the rather impressive ‘Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116’, which is of course pronounced ‘Albin’. This name was decided on by parents angry at legal restrictions on names. Their protest didn’t pay off however, and little Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 couldn’t keep the name.
Something new and strange isn’t necessarily a bad thing anyway. Popular names change over time, and before we know it maybe every other new family will want to name their baby Nutella.
I’m sure most would argue that when a name reaches that level of apparent strangeness, it shouldn’t be allowed, but in the end such names would most likely be modified for everyday use. Nutella would be Ella to her friends and little Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 would just use Albin for convenience, just like an Anastacia might call herself Anna, or I would call myself Tim rather than Timothy.
There are then again names that despite all my protestations seem to have no hope. In New Zealand, both ‘Talulah does the hula from Hawaii’ and ‘Number 16 bus shelter’ were banned. Part of the name choosing process has always been about attaching some sort meaning to it: many Christians may get named after an apostle, Chinese names usually some beautiful meaning due to Chinese characters all having an associated meaning and some families like to use the same name over many generations. When your name conjures up an image of waiting next to a road hoping your commuting vehicle of choice won’t skip to bus stop 17, that name quite frankly isn’t good for anyone, especially Number 16 bus shelter themselves.
Then there are the names which really push the boundaries. The last thing a parent should bestow on their offspring is a name which insults from day one. Lenin and Stalin have for example, both been approved in India in the past. Of course, one could even argue if those names actually should be controversial, but for the sake of this article , we will say that they can be insulting names.
In the light of some of the other excitingly different names dotted about the world, Nutella doesn’t really look so bad. Perhaps it is a little silly, but if you just accept it as a name, and forget it is also a delicious morning treat, you might just see that it’s really quite a beautiful name, which exists beyond our own limitational definition.
Tim van Gardingen