post the third, 2013

did you hear about the case of blaer bjarkardottir? blaer is a 15-yo icelandic girl. when blaer was born, her mother decided to name her 'light breeze' which in icelandish is blaer.

in the country of iceland (and in germany and in denmark) you can't just choose any name for your baby. these countries each have a list of acceptable names -- and, not simple suggestions, mind you. oh, no, no, no! these names are LAW. you cannot legally name your child a name not on the list. ergo, blaer's legal name: girl. i mean, 'stulka' - which is 'girl' in icelanderspeak.

iceland has a personal names register containing 1712 boy names and 1853 girl names. the names have been vetted and deemed to fit icelandic grammar and pronunciation rules. 3547 total names that government officials have decided will protect children from embarrassment. parents have the option of applying for exception.

blaer's mom thought the name WAS on the list, and the priest who baptised blaer thought the name was on the list. apparently, priests and govt mix a bit more tightly in ol' icelanderland than here in the states. ANYHOO - the priest and blaer's mom bjork (not THAT bjork... although with only 1853 names to choose from, i'd guess there are quite a few bjorks.) thought blaer was on The List.

anyway, no harm done, right? bjork should simply apply for an exception, right? well, she did, and the committee turned her down. BOOM. because 'blaer' the noun (meaning = light breeze, remember?) takes a masculine article. (digression: i don't know how english escaped the scourge of gendered articles, but thank odin we simply use "the" and not the pantheon of le's and la's.) no matter that a very famous icelanderplatz book by the nobel prize-winning halldor laxness (stand up straight there, laxness!) had a girl protagonist called BLAER. never mind that bjork (not THAT bjork - the MOM bjork!) knew a girl called BLAER in 1973 (what? precise year much??). NEVER MIND AND NO MATTER THE COMMITTEE SAYS NO NO NO!

i looked this up - icelandenesse has a population of 319,000. divide that by 3547 (total number of names) and you get 89. that means, each name is used 89 times... right? at any rate - it's not a one-to-one correspondence. if you stick to the list, several folks are going to have the same name. like, you know. BJORK.

here's a little-known fact (unless you read the yahoo-news story from which i am shamelessly lifting): in icelandian, folks go by only their first names. this would seem problematic for bjork blaersmommir as she'd constantly be going - no, not THAT bjork. but, that's what they do - everyone's on a first-name basis. your surname is just your dad's name plus either dottir (daughter [for girls]) or sen (son [boys {duh}]). so. names are important, and here's sweet little blaer getting called stulka.

stulka. ugh. not really a pretty word, is it? pluswise, remember why they had the list? to save kids from embarrassment. in a country where all you have is your given name, wonder how embarrassing it is to be without one...