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Anna Andersen / AP file
Icelandic teenager Blaer Bjarkardottir, 15, left, seen with her mother Bjork Eidsdottir, won the right to use her first name Thursday.
An Icelandic teenager referred to as "Girl" by the island nation’s authorities was finally given the right to use her own first name by a court Thursday, according to reports.
Blaer Bjarkardottir’s first name means "breeze" in Icelandic and was not on a list of approved names or otherwise permitted by the authorities.
The English-language website News of Iceland reported that the Icelandic Naming Committee had previously ruled that Blaer was only a man’s name.
But on Thursday a district court in Reykjavik ruled that it could also be used as a girl’s name, it added.
"I am very happy... Finally, I'll have the name 'Blaer' in my passport," the 15-year-old said, according to the Iceland Review Online, which added that her request for $3,950 in damages was rejected by the court.
Previously the authorities had recorded her first name in the National Registry as Stulka, which simply means girl.
According to the island.is website, which is run by the government, the "Personal Names Register" includes "all Icelandic names that have been approved," but people can apply for permission to use names not on the list.
Embarrassing names not allowed
Names must be "adaptable to the structure of the Icelandic language and spelling conventions" and also "not cause the bearer embarrassment."
"I'm proud of my name," said the Icelandic girl whose passport says her name is just "Girl." However, Girl was baptized Blaer, Icelandic for "breeze." The government committee, which must approve all first names, has rejected Blaer because it is a masculine name. NBC's Annabel Roberts reports.
"Girls should be given a female name and boys should be given male names. No person can have more than three personal names," it adds.
Blaer's mother, Bjork Eidsdottir, previously told The Associated Press that she had "no idea that the name wasn’t on the list" and only learned this after Blaer was baptized by a priest, who later told her he had mistakenly allowed it.
"Blaer is a perfectly Icelandic name," she added. "It seems like a basic human right to be able to name your child what you want, especially if it doesn't harm your child in any way."
People in Iceland are usually referred to by their first names — with even President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson addressed simply as Olafur.
Surnames are usually based on either their mother or father’s first name. Bjarkardottir means daughter of Bjork.
Professor Armann Jakobsson, of the University of Iceland’s faculty of Icelandic and comparative cultural studies, said he thought Blaer was "a good name" for a woman and "more or less established now."
He said Blaer was used as a female name in a novel by Iceland's Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness, prompting other people to use it.
A girl called 'mistake'?
Armann, the son of Jakob, said the decisions of the naming committee were at times "very controversial."
He said there were lots of urban myths about names in Iceland. Two female names that are allowed are Mist and Eyk, prompting jokes that a baby girl could be given a name that sounds like "mistake," he said, although he was unaware of an actual example.
"The average person doesn’t understand the logic behind the law. The average person thinks the committee should ban silly names, rather than foreign-sounding names," he said.
"I think the committee is really unpopular, but I think many people want to have laws about this," he added.
"But there are also people who criticize this and say there should be no laws about names, but then they say [people] should not be allowed to be called Satan or Lucifer … or a number."
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I thought Iceland was pretty good bunch of people that took care of business but this makes me wonder. Being an American and not able to imagine living without Free Will it troubles me that someone would be told what name was acceptable.. that is the ultimate in Oppression. Thank God we have a Constitution that supports our Rights. Rights given by God and not privileges given by government elite.
AWESOME!!! i saw the original story, nice to see an update, and that she will be happy!
Is there no one in Iceland that has had transgender surgery? I suppose that could get into sticky territory with the naming commitee. Or would it even be an issue?
I live in Louisiana, and once ran across a woman who worked in the animal control office whose name was (and if I'm lying, lightning strike me down now) Clittora. Her mother needed to be SHOT! I can't believe some commitee didn't stop that from happening!! Or why the woman chose to go by that name instead of a middle name, or an alias!
GraphicsLa - Bet that lady's birth certificate came from Old Charity before the 70's. Back then, it was not uncommon for a mother to ask her doctor -- usually an intern -- to name the baby. Too often, when he (and it was almost always a he) grew tired of naming kids after himself and his family, he started offering unusual names, including medical terms. The unsuspecting mother spelled it as best she could on the birth certificate.
My favorite was a boy named Apollo 11, obviously born July 20, 1969. That sort of thing may be okay for males, I suppose, but what woman wants anyone to know her age simply by hearing her name?
LMAO The Government needs to butt out of regulating names that people want to name their children. BS BS BS BS
Wow, these ladies look like sisters, I had to read to see which was which. Makes me want to move to Iceland lol.
Who woulda thunk it? Icelanders are just as dumb as we are.
How wonderful any idiot liberal should love this useless dribble. Next story is how wonderful Obama is at spending other peoples money to grow a corrupt socialist Nazi state. Next at 10 pm a story of Americas GDP after trillions and trillions the great master has taxed the rich and still cant create a job. Never mind idiot liberals we have girls ready for combat. Now be sure to listen to public radio and dream of wonderful veggies that contain no protein to survive. No worry socialist Obama care will kill you off before old age is a problem. Aint debt and fantasy great this new utopia of idiot failures?
Off the topic.....
In the original article, there was a comment about the Icelandic alphabet not containing the letter "C". It carried on with several posts asking if there is no "C" in the Icelandic alphabet, why is it spelled Iceland? I wonder if those people ever figured it out?
I will be happy to post the answer if anyone is confused.
Yes, I'm still here. Lightning did not strike me down. LOL
You GO GIRL!
Should be a non-issue. Pretty Sulka though.
Wasn't there a Porn star named Sulka?
Jeff N.- I tip my hat to you, good sir.
I have heard my fair share of stupid, hard to pronounce names. Breeze is the least of my concerns. I have issue with names that are cute for kids but not for adults like Bubbles or Star. I also take issue with crazy spellings. Do you really need all those y's in a name???? (ie: Allysyn , Braeydyn, Xzayvieyer etc) ::shake my head in dismay::
A name list of 1600 girl names, a law intended to prevent people from giving kids crazy strange names, american outrage at a foriegn nations legal policies, and the kid gets her name. Of course her name was not really confusing, in bad taste, or derogatory... but just wait until the first little girl named turdface has to go to court... and then the next, and the next.... yep.
I do have to agree with the posts that say most Icelandic women are very beautiful. I was stationed at Keflavik for 2 1/2 years in the mid 1990's and spent most weekends in Reykjavik. Been back 4 times since and will go back again. Some very nice memories.
I would not live there for all the tea on the planet. But if the people there like being told what they can name their kids, that's on them. Myself, I couldn't immigrate out fast enough.
Boy, talk about brain freeze. The people of Iceland are brain dead to live in such a oppresive country. That kind of thing wouldn't last a second here.
Iceland with 1600 girl names on the approved list.... In the u.s. 86% of female names are concentrated in 530 names. Woe.... seems not too restrictive afterall.... Name your kid shi*head and see how free you are here to name your kid whatever you like...
Damn!! Mom looks as young as the daughter! Moving to Iceland!
Call me old-fashioned, but with a few modifications, a variation of the Icelandic system might actually improve things here in the "land of the free." It seems to me that we could sure use a little sanity in our ever-expanding alphabet of names. If you have any doubt about the "ever-expanding" part of the above, you don't have to look very far. For example, while most folks used to have easily spelled/remembered names like "Sally, Bill, Donna, Rebecca or Jack," I've recently run across a number of geographically-designated human beings. Although I'm not sure I got the spelling exactly right, as I recall, their names were "Dakota," "Africa," "Bama," "Dallas," and "Memphis." Which leads me to the next point. Even if you can manage to figure out that what you are hearing is actually somebody's name, you can never be quite sure how their parents decided to spell/misspell that name. For instance, "Phil" may be spelled "Phil," but it might very well be spelled "Fill." On second thought, maybe we better leave well-enough alone. I'm afraid that if we actually did name somebody "Girl" or "Gurl"in this country, he, she or some-other-interested party would probably immediately try to have the name copyrighted!
Repugnicans and Tea Traitors must be green with envy at the level of control enjoyed by the Icelandic government. Given its isolation and remoteness, perhaps Iceland would serve as a fitting destination when they make good on their threats to leave the US permanently.
Iceland has some strange customs and contradictions. They have committees to approve of names (that in most cultures would be personal and a family decision exclusively)! But they had amazing Birgitta Jónsdóttir get elected to Parliament because she has been an active spokesperson for WikiLeaks and other citizens' movement that believe in freedom and transparency. Iceland has been a center for many genetic studies because of their isolation and less race or ethnic mixing. On the other hand Icelanders are some of the most open and accepting people in the world. They have many leaders who practice openly and freely Paganism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism...They are not religiously puritanical or closed minded as the US. So stop dissing on Iceland. And for all those guys from the Midwest and the South yakkity yakking...fluctuations in weather, as part of global warming trends, is going to bring ice age to your neighborhood. You guys are going to be the new Iceland without the exotic culture or terrain. So stop being so smug. Can we have naming or renaming committee in Iowa so there are not so many Bills, Bobs, Pats, Johns and Dicks.
In this country, we may be able to name our children any embarrassing, ugly or hate-term we please, but if we don't put it on the birth certificate, many states "name" the child "Baby Boy" or "Infant Girl" until the certificate is completed. My mother was legally "Infant" until she was in her 30's and needed a passport. She then had to have her birth certificate corrected to replace "Infant" with the perfectly normal name she'd been called all her life.
"The average person doesn’t understand the logic behind the law." Um, forced social conformity? No, we understand it...
Thank you Iceland. I suddenly feel a little better about the US government. We may not be able to agree on solutions but at least they are REAL problems.
BTW, I have a nephew named 'Justice'.
"Blaer" is still a pretty cute "Girl" no matter what you call her.
It is absolutely idiotic to intrude on a parents right to name their child. Yes, sometimes people name their kids incredibly stupid names (the guy down south a few years ago whose son was named Hilter, or a student of a friend of mine whose name was @!$%#anya) but really - you want the government involved?
I'd rather have the government concentrate on how to keep us from getting blown up by terrorists. The whole naming issue is a waste of time and any kid whose parents name her @!$%#anya or Hitler are going to probably, with parents like that, grow up to have a lot bigger problems than what their first name is.
See, a few real social problems are actually a good thing. They keep governments from having too much free time and coming up with idiotic crap like this.
Vaginal probes anyone!
I totally agree MOMINNJ- people in general do not need to get involved with people's name, that is a personal buisness and isn't that important anyway. It cant really hurt anybody, except maybe emotionally (for say you are jewish and you meet someone named hilter, could be a little hard to take) but a name is a name, people should be judge on what's on the inside, not details such as looks or names.
However, that doesn't mean the goverment shouldn't stick their noses in other buinessess, the goverment is here to assist people such as the eldery or poor, however no need to say someone cant have their name. This girl is only two years older than me, I couldn't imagine going through that and not having legal right to my name. Gosh!