Many Dutch names sound or look odd to people who can’t read the names in Dutch or have never heard them before like Joke (usually for girls), Freek (usually for boys) and Puk (unisex), but they are are quite normal.
However, some of the names that have been banned in the Netherlands since 1970 when the weed wore off when French law implemented by Napoleon in 1811 was applied, meant children had ancient names or names from the Holy Calendar.
Odd names:
– Dienaar van God (‘Servant of God’), banned in 2013.
– Jeanne d’Arc (banned in 1945 and again in 2009, but approved by an Amsterdam Court in 2010)
– TomTom (presented in Venray in 1999, but approved later on)
Geisha (presented in Groningen around 1985, but approved in 1990)
– Miracle of Love (approved Amsterdam 30 juni 1998, became Miracle-of-love)
Names that bureaucrats eventually accepted:
– Fleur de Mariage (French for ‘Flower of Marriage)
– Urine (as a female form of Uranus)
Names that were banned before 1970:
– Denis, became Dennis
– Pascale, the female version of Pascal, was eventually accepted.
– Other ‘normal’ sounding names like ‘Kitty’, ‘Willy’, ‘Loraine’, ‘Joey’ and ‘Savanna’
– A whole bunch of Dutch surnames that cannot be used as a first name
(Link: www.vernoeming.nl , Photo of Crying baby by Chalky Lives, some rights reserved)
