“Good morning, Mr. Sugarbelly!”

“Hello, Mrs. Jump-in-the-Field!”

Can you imagine meeting people with these kinds of names along the street? People in the Netherlands are used to it!

About two hundred years ago, the French emperor Napoleon was trying to take over the Netherlands. The French made everyone in the Netherlands get a last name. That way the French could count and tax everyone. But the Dutch (people from the Netherlands) didn’t want to be ruled by the French. They didn’t want last names, either. So out of spite, many picked downright goofy names.

They thought the names would be temporary. But they stuck. You can still meet people named Onion-Crier and Crooked-Neck in the street today! You might not be able to tell if you don’t speak Dutch. But the Dutch know what their names mean!

The Dutch aren’t the only people who weren’t thinking ahead when they picked out names. Sometimes it seems like parents do the same thing when they name their kids. A family in France named their daughter after the chocolaty goo Nutella. A court said people would make fun of her name when she grew up. Another couple wanted to name their daughter Fraise, which means strawberry in French. A court said “no” again.

Countries all over the world have laws about baby names. In Germany, you must be able to tell by the name if the baby is male or female. Babies born in Denmark can only have names that come from a list of 7,000 approved names. Do you have a “C” in your name? If you do, you probably weren’t born in Iceland. There is no “c” in the Icelandic alphabet, so names with “c” are illegal.

What is your name? Is it funny? Would it be illegal in any of these places?