I'll name that child in three

It often crosses my mind that the micromanagement of the Spanish state in not allowing car number plates to include vowels, because the letters of the plate may end up either being a name or something rude or offensive, is a bit excessive. I can't think of many rude three-letter Spanish words - 'ano' for anus is the one the authorities always quote, along with ETA, the disbanded terrorist organisation. And as for names like Ana and Leo, well, imagine if Swansea couldn't sell those vanity plates - there would be uproar among British-based Range Rover drivers. For years there was something akin in the naming of children.

A little while ago, we were at one of those craft markets. Maggie was very taken with a little knitted cardigan and, for once, she knew a potential recipient - one of the Culebrón villagers was just about to give birth. The child was eventually named Vega, not Bego, the diminutive of Begonia, but Vega which, along with Martina, were the top two girls' names for 2023. Lucas and Hugo for boys. I'd been scratching around for something to blog about and the name reminded me of a puff piece I'd read in a Spanish newspaper.

I'm pretty long in the tooth and I often smirk at the first names for Anglos in the United States where, apparently, River, Gravity, Blue and Busy are considered sensible choices. I have some British pals who, years ago, for their newborn son, chose very different first names and used a last name that had nothing to do with either of the couple's family names. That suggests to me that the rules about naming in the UK are quite permissive. Nowadays, naming is quite liberal in Spain too, though there's a touch of the number plate syndrome in that Spanish law prohibits names which have negative connotations or which violate the child's dignity.

The registering of a birth must be done within 72 hours and the name has to be registered within thirty days of the birth. Lots of the pages I read maintained that the name had to be registered within eight days but I think the time limit has been expanded. In the olden days if the person in the Civil Registry wasn't happy with the name that the parents had chosen, the progenitors were given three more days to come up with an acceptable name. After that, the Justice Ministry could impose a name. That would nearly always be the name of the Saint of the day. Given that lots of Catholic Saints' names are very strange (Nivardo, Faustino, Dimas, Melecio, Hermelando, Evedasto, Agapito, Plausides, Antenor, Antoliano) there must have been several dates to avoid if you didn't want your child to end up as, for example, Ildefonso, Pancracia or Pompilia. The majority of older Spaniards were named for Saints because, when they were born, the alliance between state and Catholic Church was almost absolute. At least most Saints' names are easily adapted to male and female variations by changing the ending: Francisco (male), Francisca (female); Antonio (male), Antonia (female); José (male) and Josefa (female) being common examples.

The registrar would still turn away names like Hitler, Drácula or Stalin, as well as names like Caca (poo) or Loco (crazy) as being likely to cause grief to the child. Similarly with something like Dolores Fuertes Barriga (severe stomach ache). In fact it's the same with any name be it invented, taken from another language, from a book or a film or a TV series. If the registrar considers that it may cause grief to the child in later life then it could be rejected. Nonetheless, apparently names like Arya, Daenerys and Khaleesi (all from Game of Thrones) are now reasonably common. Names of cities used to be prohibited too but names such as Roma, Cairo, París, Dakota, Tennessee and Brooklyn are now being accepted by most registrars. Bear in mind that the rule about the name being prejudicial to the interests of the child might still mean that the registrar will not accept some city names. So, probably no Sodoma Ruiz or Gomorra Romero.

Children cannot be named the same as their brothers or sisters, unless the brother or sister has died, even if the name is a translation - so no Juan and Joan (Catalan, and I suppose Valencian version of Juan, John, Jan, Ivan, etc.). That doesn't stop children being named for their parents which I often think must be confusing within a family.

Compound names are fine but with no more than two names. So while the female María José and the male José María (belt and braces approach to the Christian parents of Jesús) are fine as are Ana Belén, José Carlos etc. - Ana María Carmen or María Isabel Andrea are not. There is an exception where the parents are not Spanish and where the child was born in Spain and there is a tradition in the parent's country for more first names. In that case, multiple names can be accepted by the registrar. Mind you if the child were to go on to naturalise as Spanish, the excess names would be cut from the registered, naturalised name and, of course, any single barreled surname would have to be doubled up.

Surnames, brand names, the full names of famous people and fruit can't be used as first names. So nobody can be called García or Fernández as a first name. Just consider how many personalities would fall foul of those restrictions, from Hunter S. Thompson to Apple Martin. There is a bit of an exception to that rule about not using a famous person's name as a first name. The idea is to stop Rafa Nadal Peréz or Penélope Cruz Hernandez but Nadal and Cruz are both common enough surnames and if that's the family surname and the family Nadal want to call their boy child Rafael and the family Cruz want to call the girl Penelope then the registrar will almost certainly accept the names. But no Gucci Muñoz or Nutella Caballero - no Banana Delgado, no Peaches Geldof.

It's very common to shorten Spanish names: María Dolores to Lola, Yolanda to Yoli, Francisco to Fran, Curro or Paco, and hundreds more. The law used to say that the registry would only accept the full form. Now, if you want to call your child Chema you can but it does seem that the registrars still tend to 'strongly advise' the more traditional, complete name. You can't use just initials either and you still can't use diminutives like Pepita or Juanito.

Yet another prohibition is to put a female name to a male child or vice versa - so no boys named Sue - though this restriction is not usually applied to modern names like Noa and Alex. Basque names are quite trendy at the moment. Some, like Lur or Harri, are traditionally given to both boys and girls, a bit like Julian, Carol or Hilary in the UK. These occasionally cause problems at the time of registration for not identifying the sex of the baby adequately. I suspect that, given the current elasticity around gender identity, this rule may be one of the most polemical prohibitions at the moment.

And now a disclaimer. When Maggie told me about the gift for Vega it reminded me of the article I'd read in 2023 about prohibited names. That article, from The Huffington Post, and another from As were the basis for this post. As I polished the blog (yes, these ramblings are reworked!) I found another article on a 'parents to be' website which highlighted lots of recent changes to the 1957/58 law on naming children and I incorporated those changes as best I could. I couldn't however be absolutely certain that what I was reading was authoritative as articles written in 2024 contradicted what seemed to be more liberal rules reported in 2023. So, while I think the blog is basically accurate there may be tiny, weeny inaccuracies.