Swedish parents are fighting the government for the right to
name their baby one letter. The government claims that their child, who has
been called simply Q since birth, has an illegal name since Swedish law
prohibits names that consist of only one letter.
But the couple has argued before court that their son
answers to the name Q, and besides, they say, “There are stranger names in the valley."
Q is an elegant letter with more a well-rounded sound than,
say, a vowel, but it’s still not a name I would wish to see bestowed on any children
dear to me. That said, should this really be a crime? Is it truly child
endangerment to name your baby an unusual name?
If so, celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow (mother of Apple) to
David Duchovny (father of Kyd) are no less guilty than the parents of Q.
To appease authorities, the couple has suggested changing
the spelling of their baby’s name to Q:u. I say that if Sweden’s naming
laws make it necessary to put a form of punctuation into the middle of a name, perhaps those laws are not exactly serving the interests of
the children.
Image: Parent Dish
