At a recent bookclub meeting we were, as is wont to happen, discussing everything except the book and the subject of naming babies came up. I was very surprised to hear of the existence of a baby naming law here in Norway. I was told that the “Navneloven” says that there is an approved list of acceptable Norwegian names for babies that must be adhered to or you can face a fine and even jail time.

This came as a bit of a shock to me; I’d always thought it was fierce national pride that made Weegies give their children such traditional names… or maybe unoriginality… but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and call it national pride.

Anyway… I was so fascinated by the idea of this law that I decided to do some research.

I searched on various websites and discovered that the law was changed in 2003 to become slightly more liberal, and yet had trouble finding any official source that actually said a baby has to be named from a central register. I did find out though, that you have to give your baby a name within the first six months of its life or it will automatically get its mother’s surname as a first name.

It is also illegal to have your first name and surname as the same name, so Chris’s Sim character “Bob Bobson” would probably be out.

I found a couple of articles in English about this:

• Baby Naming Laws: Grin and “Bjorn” It?
• Norway and parents tussle on baby’s name

But I knew I wouldn’t get any real information until I did some reading in Norwegian. Luckily my Norwegian is good enough that I can usually muddle through and find what I’m looking for.

Eventually I found the Navneloven website which summarises the law and the recent changes (see my translation below each paragraph - apologies if the translation sucks, leave a comment if there are corrections needed):

Ny norsk navnelov ble gjeldende fra 2003, og erstattet den gamle navneloven fra 1964. I den nye navneloven ble det friere å velge mer spesielle og uvanlige navn enn det var tidligere.

A new Norwegian naming law became valid from 2003, and replaced the old law from 1964. The new naming law allows more freedom to choose special and unusual names than there had been previously.

En av de viktigste forskjellene fra den gamle navneloven, er at et fornavn nå kan benyttes hvis det ikke vil “bli til vesentlig ulempe for vedkommende eller andre sterke grunner tilsier det”. Tidligere måtte navnet ikke bli til “ulempe”, og det er klart at ved å legge til ordet “vesentlig” i den nye navneloven, står man nå mye friere til å velge fornavn.

One of the most important differences from the old naming law is that a first name can be given as long as it will not cause significant disadvantage to the person concerned or other strong reasons within the realms of common sense. Previously, the name could not cause “disadvantage” but the addition of the word “significant” means that Norwegians now have more freedom in choosing a name.

En begrensning for valg av fornavn, er likevel at hvis navnet er registrert som etternavn eller mellomnavn, kan det ikke benyttes som fornavn hvis det ikke allerede har opphav/tradisjon som fornavn i Norge, i utlandet, eller i andre kulturer hvor det ikke skilles mellom fornavn og etternavn.

A restriction in choosing a first name is that if the name is registered as a surname or middle name, it cannot be given to a child unless that name is already a traditional Norwegian first name, or a name in another country or culture where there is no separation of middle and surnames.

Man er pliktig til å gi myndighetene beskjed om valg av navn for barnet sitt senest 6 måneder etter at det er født.

It is your duty to give the authorities notification of your choice of name for your child, at the latest, six months after the birth.

Endring av fornavn kan i hovedsak ikke gjøres mer enn en gang hvert tiende år, hvis det ikke er særlige grunner for det.

Changing of first names can essentially not be done more than once every ten years unless there is a special reason for it.

Navneloven (lov om personnavn) kan leses i sin helhet her.

The naming law can be read in its entirety here.

So there you have it folks. Before 2003 there were a lot of restrictions on naming your baby (or renaming yourself for that matter) but they seem to have eased up since the last change in law. The funny thing is, some Norwegians are completely ignorant that the law even exists (those without children, no doubt) and others that are still convinced that the old strictures are still in place. In any case, you can still have your chosen name rejected by the government if they decide that it will cause significant disadvantage to the namee.