State Baby Naming Laws: What's Legal In Your Area

Buzz Feed

12 hours ago

Names are becoming more and more unique every day. But did you know some places have strict laws on what name you're allowed to put on a baby's birth certificate? Well, it's true.
And the United States is no exception. In fact, it's illegal to name your child Jesus Christ, Adolf Hitler, Harry 3, Nutella, and @.
But the rules don't stop there! Here's a list of states that have specific rules for the name you give your child at birth:
Alaska — The use of symbols, including diacritical marks like the kahakō (¯), for names that originate from Kānaka 'Ōiw and Inupiaq cultures is permitted.
Arizona — Names can have a total of 141 characters.
Arkansas — Names can have apostrophes, hyphens, and spaces, as long as they're not consecutive.
California — Derogatory or obscene names, pictographs, and non-English characters are officially banned.
Connecticut — Names must contain English letters only, without any symbols. Obscene names prohibited and a name is not required at the time of birth.
Delaware — No strict rules; you can change a name at any time.
Florida — Parents must sign an agreement on what the child's name will be or the state court will automatically assign one for them.
Georgia — No symbols or accents.
Hawaii — The use of symbols, including diacritical marks like the kahakō (¯), for names that originate from Kānaka 'Ōiw and Inupiaq cultures is permitted.
Idaho — Only English letters allowed.
Illinois — No real restrictions. Special characters and numbers are allowed.
Indiana — The total length of the first, middle, and last name must be under 100 characters.
Iowa — Flexible with naming. Parents can also add a first name (but not change an existing one) until the child is 7 years old.
Louisiana — A baby's last name must match the mother's if she wasn't married within 300 days before the birth.
Massachusetts — A baby's first, last, and middle names are restricted to a maximum of 40 characters each.
Michigan — Names can only have English-language characters in them.
Minnesota — Numbers and special symbols are banned, except for apostrophes and hyphens.
Mississippi — The child automatically takes on the father's last name if/when the parents are married. A different name can be requested if preferred.
New Hampshire — Names can have a maximum of 100 characters total. Apostrophes/dashes are allowed, but no other punctuation.
New Jersey — No obscene names, symbols, or numbers.
New York — First and middle names have a maximum of 30 characters each, but last names cannot exceed 40 characters. Numbers and symbols in names are strictly forbidden.
North Carolina — Accent marks, tildes (á), and hyphens are allowed, but numbers, symbols, and emojis are not.
Ohio — You can use hyphens, apostrophes, and spaces, but numbers in names are prohibited.
Oklahoma — Nonbinary birth-sex markers are banned.
Rhode Island — Accented letters are prohibited on birth certificates, but they can be used formally.
South Carolina — Names with numbers and symbols are allowed.
Tennessee — Last names follow the father if married, and judges can object to sacrilegious names (i.e., Messiah).
Texas — First, middle, and last names can't exceed 100 characters. Only English characters are allowed. Numbers, emojis, and diacritical marks are forbidden.
Lastly, Virginia — Numbers, symbols and other special characters such as umlauts and tildes are banned.
Tell us about an interesting name you've seen or heard before in the comments!