What first names are banned in the UK?

16 May 2025, 16:03 | Updated: 16 May 2025, 16:06

New Zealand may be the country that produced the singer Lorde but it has apparently taken a firm stance against regal names being given to children.

Auckland governors have upheld a ban on parents naming their youngsters after royal titles with first names such as Prince, Princess, and King all being banned in the country, the Bristol Post has reported.

The New Zealand Law Society has more draconian laws on what children can and cannot be called and took a famously dim view in 2008 when parents dared to name their nipper Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii. The unfortunately named child was taken out of the parents’ custody after a legal battle following on from her, unsurprising, unrelenting playground mockery.

The ban would be bad news for Ghanaian footballer Kevin Prince Boateng had he been born in New Zealand. Other celebrities such as Kanye’s child Saint West and Beyonce’s son Sir Carter are only just about on the right side of that law.

Royal names are one of the things that Britain does best, of course, and at a monarchy event on Friday much of the world woke up to the fact that Prince William and King Charles’s full names are glorious.

King Charles III, Sovereign Head of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath is surely a name that would not get past the gatekeepers in New Zealand.

But what naming rules does the UK have? And can you bestow a character-building childhood on your son by calling him King, or your daughter by naming her Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii?

What names are banned in the UK?

There is not a set list of names that are banned in the UK. However, the Registry Office does have the right to reject names that it feels are inappropriate.

A freedom of information request made in 2021, on the back of that year’s census, contained a response from the government suggesting that the powers that be can block any names that border on the ridiculous.

“The UK has no law that restricts names that parents can legally give to their children,” the Office for National Statistics data reads.

“However, names that contain obscenities, numerals, misleading titles, or are impossible to pronounce are likely to be rejected by the Registering Officer.”

Last September a seven-year-old boy had a passport request rejected for “copyright reasons” with the Home Office taking offence at his Star Wars inspired name Loki Skywalker Mowbray.

However, the authority backed down and did eventually grant Loki, born on ‘Star Wars Day’ May 4, 2017, the passport.