2024-09-19 13:14:53
Here are some examples of names that the Swedish Tax Agency has rejected.
Lucifer
Despite the fact that the name Lucifer means “bringer of light” in Latin, it was originally the name of an angel. The tax agency in 2020 rejected the request of two parents from Uppsala who wanted to name their child.
Although the agency considers other angelic names, such as Gabriel and Michael, perfectly acceptable, it rejects Lucifer on the basis that it is associated with the devil and therefore can cause sin, according to Uppsala New Newspaper (UNT).
There are 114 Lucifers living in Sweden, according to the Tax Office.
Skatteverket’s decision to reject the name was upheld on appeal in court.
Pilsner
Other couples were also prevented from using their first name choice for their child born in August 2017.
They Hoping to name the baby boy Pilzner after his father and grandfather – and Pilsner lager.
“My father was known as Pilzner because he drank Pilsner,” the child’s father, Matz Pilzner Johanneson, told SVT Halland.
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“I only drink Pilsner and since I was young, I have been called Pilsner.”
Johanneson legally changed his first name to Matz Pilzner as an adult, and said he and his wife were “deeply saddened” by the Skatteverket’s decision regarding their three-month-old son.
The agency decided that the name, like the beer itself, was not suitable for children.
Vladimir Putin
The name may be good enough for the Russian president, but not for the Swedish authorities, that write a couple’s request to give their son two first names: Vladimir Putin.
In 2021, the couple, from Laholm in southern Sweden, rejected their request. It is not clear why the Tax Office refused the name – whether it was because it was dangerous and caused problems for the child, or because of the fact that first names similar to surnames are not allowed (or maybe both).
According to the Tax Agency, there are 1,483 people in Sweden who have Vladimir as a first name, and two who have it as a surname. A person in Sweden has the first name Putin.
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Ford
The law against using surnames as first names has caused issues for other couples, especially those from parts of the world where it is more common to use surnames as first names, like North America.
In 2018, a Swedish-Canadian couple was banned from using the name Ford, even though it was the name the couple found in their family tree. “We wanted to give our son an older, traditional name from my family. So we looked at my father’s family tree and found Ford there and we thought that name was really cool and we wanted to bring it back,” Joseph Kendrick told The Local at the time.
Q
Finally, a couple back in 2009 are forbidden to give their child the unusual name Q, perhaps inspired by the quartermaster in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, who goes by the same name.
The couple, from Jämtland, argued that not only was their son called Q since he was born, but he also responded to the name, so it didn’t cause him any problems.
Unfortunately, the courts didn’t buy their argument, arguing that Q was a letter of the alphabet not normally used as a first name.
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