72
votes
Can someone's legal name be all lowercase?
Or maybe capitalization is not even part of the name
That's pretty much it. No court would fail to recognize the name "John Doe" in the string "JOHN DOE"; similarly, if someone ...
- 40.1k
62
votes
Accepted
Is Elon Musk's child name valid in California?
We could start with what the statutes say (HSC 102425)
(a) The certificate of live birth for a live birth occurring on or
after January 1, 2016, shall contain those items necessary to
establish the ...
- 217k
56
votes
Accepted
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
In the US, any legal restrictions on names are implemented at the state level——although broad administrative restrictions exist on the federal level. Some states may restrict use of diacritics (...
- 217k
36
votes
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
Let's rephrase that:
Can I legally register my child's name in bold/italic/underlined/strike-through?
Can I legally register my child's name in ...
34
votes
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
Not in germany
In general, you can name your kid how you want, but there are limits in practice, due to technical and legal constraints.
Germany has a list of allowed characters in names because the ...
- 45.2k
30
votes
What consequences could there be for Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- when he grows up?
It depends on the mens rea element of any given statute.
If Bobby's home state makes it a crime to purposefully enter harmful data into a computer system, he is unlikely to ever run afoul of that law ...
- 61.8k
28
votes
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
Not in iceland
Iceland has an explicit list of approved given names. If a child’s prospective name is on that list, then it’s fine. If it’s not on that list, then it needs to be approved by the ...
22
votes
Can someone's legal name be all lowercase?
This depends on jurisdiction and the general answer is yes/no/both/either/it depends.
See this well-known essay about what is or isn't true about names in general: Falsehoods Programmers Believe about ...
- 3,698
20
votes
Accepted
My child's name is "Robert'); drop table *;--" Am I in trouble?
Your kid is not in trouble; he's a minor. You're in trouble.
A criminal case for the charges a prosecutor would bring, i.e. destruction of property (the data) or for a relevant cyber or computer ...
- 19k
17
votes
What consequences could there be for Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- when he grows up?
germany
If Bobby was born in Germany, he won't have this problem. German laws requires the parents to select a name appropriate for the gender of the newborn, and DROP TABLES is not a suitable name ...
- 20.5k
16
votes
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
Not in canada
I assume you are asking whether it is legal or possible to include a line break character in the name used in the state administrative records referring to your child, since I am not ...
- 72.7k
16
votes
Accepted
Can my music player app have the same name as a musician band? It's common words
This is a trademark question, not a copyright question.
The core ultimate legal question is whether the music app name creates a reasonable probability of confusion, for a typical consumer of the ...
- 240k
15
votes
Can someone's legal name be all lowercase?
Lowercase names are impossible in japan, prc, rc, rok, dprk
Any name that is on a Japanese identity document (the "my Number" card/ID card) or in the official citizen register is written in ...
- 45.2k
14
votes
Am I allowed to use the word "meta" in the name of my product or startup?
If you do, you will probably be faced with a lawsuit. If the program did something that they don't do, it might be okay (but hire a lawyer to be sure). Perhaps a plumbing app would be safe.
They (Meta)...
- 217k
13
votes
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
Not in france
The glyphs of a first name must be part of the French alphabet. The new line character/sequence is not part of it.
I did not find anything for the family name but I believe that in doubt ...
- 2,478
11
votes
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
Probably not in sweden and israel
According to the Naming law in Sweden Wikipedia article:
The first paragraph does not give a person the right to acquire as a first name a name that
can cause ...
- 441
10
votes
Practical aspects of changing your name in a common law jurisdiction
I am a notary public in Vermont and have had to deal with people who had name variations. Readers of Law StackExchange like to citations to reliable sources; I'm not going to do that, just describe my ...
- 4,893
9
votes
Accepted
What characters are allowable in a US name?
There is ultimately no meaningful regulation of name choice in the United States, but failing to follow convention can be a pain.
Many countries have far more rigorous regulation of names and often ...
- 240k
9
votes
Can I legally include a line break in my child's name?
england-and-wales
This FOI request outlines the relatively permissive regime that governs the registering of baby names, but your chosen name would not be allowed as it is not a "sequence of ...
- 4,254
8
votes
Would it be legal to have an infinitely long middle name?
You cannot have an infinitely long name because a name has to be something that can be written down or spoken to be used. An infinitely long name can't be written down or spoken.
- 240k
8
votes
Am I allowed to use the word "meta" in the name of my product or startup?
What makes you think it’s either “will I be sued” or “is this a common word”?
First, you can be sued at any time by a large company if you do something they don’t like. Whether they are right or wrong....
- 35.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Could someone lacking a name be put on trial?
Why do you think the man is unidentifiable? He's the guy standing in the dock.
While a person's name is a handy shorthand for them; it's not their identity. Many people have several names and ...
- 227k
7
votes
Can someone's legal name be all lowercase?
In the U.S., names are generally left to the choice of parents and the person who bears the name, though as a convention of common languages spoken in the U.S., the name is likely to be given capital ...
- 23.2k
7
votes
What consequences could there be for Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- when he grows up?
france
For someone born in France, no consequences, because it would never happen. The état civil officer registering the name of newborns has the power to veto names that "seem contrary to the ...
- 804
6
votes
Accepted
Can a child have a different last name from both their father and mother?
No law in the US requires that parent and child have the same last name. It is usual that a child's name match that of at least one parent, but not required.
A parent can change his or her name, ...
- 115k
6
votes
My child's name is "Robert'); drop table *;--" Am I in trouble?
No, your future first child would not get into trouble, since they cannot be held responsible for the initial name gave to them by another.
You, as the 'responsible' parent may be held responsible ...
- 5,736
6
votes
Is or was it a law that people (or females only?) who get divorced have to "keep" their last names which keep on "building up"?
In the USA, at least, it has never, to the best of my information, been legally mandated to add a name on marriage, or even for husband and wife have the same last name. It has long been customary in ...
- 115k
6
votes
What consequences could there be for Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- when he grows up?
This has already happened, with a name that's not inherently malicious.
Some badly-designed systems parse values and convert their names from strings to something else automatically. An example I've ...
- 169
5
votes
Accepted
Law regarding name suffixes
The law allows you to name your child whatever you want with some exceptions: names containing ideograms, pictograms, diacritical marks, obscenities or too long names are prohibited. That said, there ...
- 28.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Why do the majority of states require you to publish your name change?
Name-changing can facilitate escaping liability, so that e.g. if you are liable to someone for $20,000 and you change your name, you may be able to evade that liability. If a name change is made ...
- 217k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible