this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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A woman was left "devastated" after her daughter's passport application was rejected because she was named after a Game of Thrones character.

Lucy, 39, from Swindon in Wiltshire, said the Passport Office initially refused the application for Khaleesi, six.

Officials said they were unable to issue a passport unless Warner Brothers gave permission because it owned the name's trademark. But the authority has since apologised for the error.

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[–] [email protected] 125 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The idea that corporations could own your name is positively dystopian.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago (3 children)

All the women named Madison suddenly owe royalties to the rightsholders of the 1984 mermaid-in-Manhattan comedy Splash. Also, anyone named Wendy has to pay the J. M. Barrie estate or change their name to Gwendolyn.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

“Son Of Matthew” Is a pretty name for a girl though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This has been pissing me off for so long!

In fact anyone using surnames as first names. Stop it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But Go back far enough, and a surname is just the given name of your father, or the town you live in, or the trade you do.

More accurate to stop using given names as surnames!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Absolutely. We need to throw off these 11th century traditions and make sure our children’s entire names sound like a double barrelled surname.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Now I wonder if that would require a lawsuit between the J. M. Barrie estate & the Wendy's restaurant chain.

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[–] [email protected] 114 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

owned the name's trademark

People really don't understand trademark despite it being in the name. It's a trade mark. It's a mark on something you trade. It only applies to commercial products. Unless Warner Brothers sells children there's no trademark violation.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Unless Warner Brother's sells children

With the way the world is lately, it wouldn't surprise me if they did.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Although, if any one company was going to that, it'd probably be Disney.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (3 children)

When they age out of the It's A Small World cast, Disney sells them to Nestlé.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago

Aha but the passport office knew something we didn't.

Clearly this is proof they sell children overseas.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Poor kid gonna grow up and watch the show where she was named after right before the final season.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's a final season? I'm pretty sure they decided to wait for GRRM to finish the books as it would be silly to just go off the map and start making things up, as that could go awfully wrong.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I sure hope they don't rush it just because they want to go do some other projects!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

That'd be disastrous.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

No way in hell HBO would allow such a profoundly cultural phenomenon just go to shit. That would be insanely shortsighted for a company that takes such pride in their filmmaking.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My name is alarmingly close to one of the characters (my mate who was reading the books when they first came out thought it was hilarious), but at least I’m not the newsreader Jon Snow.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Imagine the number of times people have smugly said to him, "you know nothing!" Ina bad Scottish accent.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (4 children)

How to tell if your parents are morons...

This girl is going to call herself "K." by the time she's 14.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago

Official explained there had been a misunderstanding and the guidance staff had originally given applies only to people changing their names.

It's still fucked

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Mental how many people actually thought Khaleesi was the character’s name.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Do you think maybe it’s just the fictional version for all the people that named their children Earl, Princess, Queen, Duke, or any of the other titles that became names?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Add Caesar too. Although it has declined in popularity.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Originally in my list then dropped because when I’ve offered this counter in the past I’ve had people argue that was originally a name. Regina and Reginald should have been in my list as well.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago (6 children)

This seems fucking daft. How do you refuse a name? Unless your name is a literal blank then you should be allowed any stupid name you desire.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Here in Germany, they can decide to refuse a name for a child if it's overly krass or might make the child's life unduly difficult. While one can argue about whether they like that, at least it only happens once. If you have a name, you can get as many passports with it on there as you want.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

some twonk at the passport office invented this rule.

hence the apology. The Uk passport office has no right or duty to enforce trademarks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Official explained there had been a misunderstanding and the guidance staff had originally given applies only to people changing their names.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Even that doesn't make sense. Trademark law doesn't apply to peoples personal names.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

In Malaysia same rule apply, but the only gate is from the National Registration Department, where they might reject name including joke name and stupidly long name, the other department have no such power.

At least no child have to live with the name Biggus Dickus or Incontinetia Buttocks for 18 years.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I met a guy who had no first name. He had to be entered into systems as "NFN."

There's nothing wrong with not having a name that's literally blank.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No first name and no name are two different concepts.

Morally, sure, there's nothing wrong with having no name. Socially and practically there absolutely is.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Depends on the society and what it considers practical.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

One of my friends from church growing up was from Nigeria, and apparently there's a culture within Nigeria that doesn't believe in naming their kids until they come of age. He had no first or middle name, just his family name. He went by Cory, which is apparently what his parents planned on naming him once he was (iirc) 13, but it wasn't "officially" his name. But apparently it caused all sorts of problems for them when they immigrated, and the US makes it much more complicated than they expected, because they were used to more informal/traditional/less legalistic systems around it.

Caveat, I was like 9, so I may be misremembering some detail. I'm also only, like, 80% it was Nigeria. I know it was Africa, but I'm not entirely positive it was Nigeria, but I think it was.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A Danish couple went court to be allowed to name their child Christophpher. That's not a typo.

People are stupid.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

A Danish couple went court to be allowed to name their child Christophpher. That’s not a typo.

What's their surname? Hfuhruhurr?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Passport Office has admitted that it was a mistake and have sorted this out. The interesting question is how this happened. I've known a few people who work their and they aren't beyond dicking about - back in the day they might mess with famous people by sticking their photograph on upside down. I could see them doing something like this is they thought someone had a stupid name.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It is a stupid name. Why lumber the kid with an unnecessarily daft name? It's not even easy to spell.

I've got a somewhat odd name (at least I'm not named after a character from a book), and I do wish my parents would just have gone with Tom or something.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's also not actually a name in the source material. It's like watching a story about 18th century France and naming your daughter "Dauphine", or about 1st century BC Rome and naming your son "Consul".

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Even a blank name can work for some; https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ is a fun read if you've never encountered it before.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Every country has guidelines and rules on names.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This doesn't make any sense. The colour brown is a trademark of UPS, yet I've known people with the last name Brown who were able to get passports.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

While completely daft on part of the passport office, I suppose this is a cautionary tale about naming your kids after popular TV characters (particularly those with unique names). Turns out it can cause you a spot of trouble

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Especially if their character arc hasn't run its course yet. They might turn into a genocidal maniac that has sex with her estranged half brother or something like that.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So many good names in that show and she chooses Khaleesi (which just was the title of her, right?)

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"My son's name is also Joffrey."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

That's an easy one to shrug off in years to come as a poorly spelled Jeffrey. Khaleesi just says "My name is one is a long line of bad mistakes my parents made."

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