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While royal-themed baby names like King, Prince, and Princess are gaining popularity in the United States, New Zealand is maintaining its strict stance against such monikers.
According to a recent Official Information Act inquiry, the New Zealand government rejected 11 requests to name a child King. Other royal-inspired names like Prince (10 requests), Princess (4 requests), and even the creative variation Pryncess (2 requests) were also denied.
New Zealand’s naming rules, enforced by the New Zealand Law Society, require names to be under 70 characters, free of non-standard symbols, and not resemble official titles.
This contrasts sharply with the more lenient approach in the United States, where royal-themed names have surged in recent years. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, King ranked 266th among the most popular baby names in 2023, followed by Royal at 402, Prince at 364, and Princess at 919.
However, even in the U.S., some states impose restrictions. For instance, names like Adolf Hitler, Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the symbol @ are banned.
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New Zealand has continued the ban while the names continue to rise in popularity in the U.S. (Getty/iStock)
Few specific names are explicitly prohibited as U.S. courts generally interpret the Constitution as protecting parents’ rights to choose their children’s names.
Despite this, many states restrict numerals, pictograms, foreign characters, emojis, and offensive language. Notably, California bans accents but allows hyphens and apostrophes, permitting names like X AE A-XII, chosen by Elon Musk and Grimes.
While states like Kentucky have no specific naming laws, others still restrict titles like King and Queen. For example, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ son, known as King Combs, has the legal name Christian Casey Combs.
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Trump 100 Days (California state law allows hyphens in names, such as Grimes and Elon Musk’s son X AE A-XII.)
Surprisingly, the top baby names of 2024 in the U.S. and New Zealand are quite similar.
For males in the U.S., Liam, Noah, Oliver, Theadore, and James take the top spots, compared to New Zealand’s top five: Oliver, Noah, Henry, Leo, and Theodore.
Top female names in the U.S. include Olivia, Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, and Mia compared to Isla, Amelia, Charlotte, Olivia, and Mia in New Zealand.