Overview

• U.S. states ban names that imply royalty, religious figures or hate symbols, including King, Queen, Jesus Christ, Messiah, Adolf Hitler and Lucifer.
• Naming rules diverge on symbols and non-alphabetic characters, with Illinois and South Carolina allowing entries like “1069” or “@” while Hawaii and Alaska accept indigenous diacritics.
• Jurisdictions impose varying limits on name length and surnames, from New York’s 30-character cap per name part and Arizona’s 141-character total to Mississippi’s default paternal surname and Florida’s court-decided names.
• International parallels include Japan’s prohibition on names with odd pronunciations or “shiny” and “glittery” themes and New Zealand’s 2024 rejection of 40 names to avoid confusion or embarrassment.
• In the absence of a federal naming standard, authorities balance cultural sensitivity, administrative clarity and public order when approving or rejecting birth names.