Here are some examples of names the Swedish Tax Agency has rejected.
Lucifer
Despite the fact that the name Lucifer means “light-bearer” in Latin and was originally the name of an angel, the Tax Agency in 2020 rejected the request of two parents’ from Uppsala who wanted to give the name to their child.
Although the agency deems other angelic names, like Gabriel and Michael, to be perfectly acceptable, it rejected Lucifer on the basis that it’s associated with the devil and therefore could cause offence, according to Upsala Nya Tidning (UNT).
There are 114 Lucifers living in Sweden, according to the Tax Agency.
Skatteverket's decision to reject the name was upheld on appeal in court.
Pilzner
Another couple were also barred from using their first choice of name for their son born in August 2017.
They hoped to name the baby boy Pilzner after his father and grandfather – and the Pilsner lager.
"My father was known as Pilzner because he used to drink Pilsner," the baby’s father, Matz Pilzner Johanneson, said to SVT Halland.
"I only drink Pilsner and since I was young, I have been referred to as Pilzner."
Johanneson legally changed his first name to Matz Pilzner as an adult, and said he and his wife were "very disappointed" by Skatteverket’s decision regarding their three-month-old.
The agency ruled that the name, like the beer itself, was not suitable for a child.
Vladimir Putin
The name may be good enough for the Russian president, but not for Swedish authorities, who rejected a couple’s request to give their son two first names: Vladimir Putin.
In 2021, the couple, from the town of Laholm in southern Sweden, had their request rejected. It’s not clear exactly on what grounds the Tax Agency rejected the name – whether it was deemed to risk causing a problem for the child, or due to the fact that first names that clearly resemble surnames aren’t allowed (or perhaps both).
According to the Tax Agency, there are 1,483 people in Sweden who have Vladimir as a first name, and two who have it as a surname. Just one person in Sweden has the first name Putin.
Ford
The rule against using surnames as first names has caused issues for other couples as well, especially those who come from parts of the world where it’s more common to use surnames as first names, like North America.
In 2018, a Swedish-Canadian couple was banned from using the name Ford, despite the fact that it was a name the couple found in the father’s family tree."We wanted to give our child an older name, a traditional one from my family. So we looked through my father's family tree and found Ford there. We thought that name was really cool and wanted to bring it back," Joeseph Kendrick told The Local at the time.
Q
Finally, a couple back in 2009 was banned from giving their child the somewhat unusual name Q, perhaps inspired by the quartermaster in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, who went by the same name.
The couple, from Jämtland, argued that not only had their son been called Q since he was born, but he also responded to the name, so it therefore didn’t cause him any problems.
Unfortunately, the courts didn’t buy their argument, arguing that Q is a letter of the alphabet which is not typically used as a first name.
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