<p>I had no idea European countries legislated names! Wow! Actually, I think it’s pretty aweful that a government would do this. Think of all the amusement and amused indignation we’d be robbed of!</p>
<p>In my family the fascist government was my in-laws who hated my plans to name DS Gabriel so much that I gave it up. They nixed Christian as well (we’re Jews, but I love the name.) Actually, I was never going to name him Christian because of obvious confusion, but I wanted to. </p>
<p>DD is frustrated because when I named her her name was extremely uncommon, but now it’s the 13th most popular name, which she hates.</p>
<p>Kids got back at in-laws. They legally dropped husband’s name from their hyphenated last name and now just go by my last name. Whoo hoo. It is a nicer name (DH agrees and couldn’t care less) and I swear I didn’t put them up to it. But as an occasional women’s studies teacher I do use it to prime the conversational pump. Perhaps they’d be prohibited from doing this in some countries.</p>