Names banned around the world

A court in Texas has ordered parents of a seven-month old baby to change his name from Messiah to Martin. Here are other names that have got parents into trouble:

Earlier this year, New Zealand's government decided to veto a list of 77 bizarre names. Photo: CHRIS BATSON/ALAMY

By Ashley Coates

2:38PM BST 12 Aug 2013

Blaer - Earlier this year a 15-year-old Icelandic girl won the right to keep her name, after overturning a ban. In Icelandic it means "light breeze", but had been designated one of 1712 male names (there are 1853 female ones) and so she had known on official documents simply as "girl". The lists exist to avoid embarrassment for the children, and are based on meeting certain rules of grammar and Gemma.

Osama bin Laden - Less than a year after 9/11, a Turkish couple living in Cologne, Germany, were refused permission to name their child Osama Bin Laden by officials. The father was found to be associated with a radical Turkish group, lead by an imam who had served time in prison for soliciting murder. Germany's guidelines for parents state that names must "indicate the gender of the child" and it must not be likely to lead to humiliation. "Hitler" is banned.

4Real - One of 77 bizarre names vetoed by New Zealand's government. They include one child who was going in to be name "." after a full stop and another that was to be called Lucifer, all rejected because they were too bizarre or offensive.

Gesher - The Norwegian mother of this child was put in prison after failing to pay a fine for using an unapproved name. Protesting in court, Kristi Larsen claimed that she had been instructed to name her 14th child Gesher - the Hebrew for Bridge - in a dream. Norway is another country that has a list of approved names for prospective parents to use