You can be Aagot, Arney or Ásfríđur; Baldey, Bebba or Brá. Dögg, Dimmblá, Etna and Eybjört are fine; likewise Frigg, Glódís, Hörn and Ingunn. Jórlaug works OK, as do Obba, Sigurfljóđ, Úranía and – should you choose – Vagna.
But you cannot, as a girl in Iceland, be called Harriet.
"The whole situation," said Tristan Cardew, with very British understatement, "is really rather silly."
With his Icelandic wife Kristin, Cardew is appealing against a decision by the National Registry in Reykjavik not to renew their 10-year-old daughter Harriet's passport on the grounds that it does not recognise her first name.
Since the registry does not recognise the name of Harriet's 12-year-old brother Duncan either, the two children have until this year travelled on passports identifying them as Stúlka and Drengur Cardew: Girl and Boy Cardew.
The law dictates that the names of children born in Iceland must – unless both parents are foreign – be submitted to the National Registry within six months of birth. If it is not on a recognised list of 1,853 female and 1,712 male names, the parents must seek the approval of a body called the Icelandic Naming Committee.
For the 5,000 or so children born in Iceland each year, the committee reportedly receives about 100 applications and rejects about half under a 1996 act aimed mainly at preserving the language of the sagas.
Not surprising, Iceland is very serious about maintaining the purity of their language. I believe they have councils or something similar that decide on new Icelandic words for things instead of borrowing them from other languages.
So everyone must have a traditional Icelandic name to preserve the language
What does a person's name have to do with that lol.
I would understand if the name would be embarrassing/ give the child a 'social handicap' as civil servants are allowed to reject such names but what's wrong with Hariet?
They haven't banned that name per se, they just have a strict set list of names they approve in order to maintain their traditionals and Harriet isn't on that list.
Sucks though that those kids are being known as "Boy" and "Girl" since their names weren't approved.
