What Can’t You Call Your Kid in Aotearoa?

There’s no such thing as a “banned” baby name in Aotearoa. But if you try to call your tender newborn Lucifer, Fanny or King Killah, the Department of Internal Affairs will most likely step in – which hasn’t stopped people from trying. 

For 28 years the registrar-general of Birth, Deaths and Marriages has had the power to decline a baby’s name, based on 1995 legislation. 

A total of 64 got the sniff of disapproval last year. 

As a guideline, the government warns people to avoid punctuation marks, swearing and formal titles, such as Sir and Justice when picking out a name.

“There are guidelines in place to ensure that names don’t cause offence, are a reasonable length and don’t represent an official title or rank” said former Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery.

If a registered name raises red flags, it’s reviewed by the Registrar-General and the family has the chance to make a case for keeping the name.  

Given that 5 people tried to legally call their baby Prince in 2025 – overtaking King, which had spent 13 years as the most annually declined name – it seems that Kiwis aren’t interested in the rulebook. 

And what are the worst names that parents in NZ have attempted to call their kids? We’ve rounded up some of the standout offenders:

ABSOLUTELY NOT

Possibly the worst offenders are the names that don’t even sound like names. Some are sex acts, some objects, some are numbers written in digits. These are the names that make us go “Oh, absolutely not!” on hearing them. 

• Anal 
• Mafia No Fear,
• 4Real
• Fanny
• KingKillah
• Fish and Chips
• Twisty Poi
• Notoriety 
• Stallion
• V8
• Yeah Detroit
• III
• Keenan Got Lucy
• Sex Fruit
• Master 

A FORMAL AFFAIR 

There’s also a very popular trend in declined baby names of using formal and royal titles – often misspelled into oblivion in an attempt to slip through the cracks. 

• Prince
• Princess
• Princess-Penina
• King
• Kiing
• Royal (Roil, Royaale, Rhoyal, Royale, Royale-Bubz)
• Royalty (Royality, Royelle, Rhoyal-Kahurangi) 
• Sire 
• Captain
• Duke
• Emperor
• Emprah
• Queen 
• President
• Justice (Jahstice, Jusdyce, Justus)
• Judge

MOTHER OF GOD

The final category that rears it’s questionable head are religious names. Not biblical names, but names of deities, religious leaders and enemies. 

• Messiah
• Christ 
• Bishop
• Pope 
• Biship
• Saynt
• Hosea-King.
• Truleigh-Saint 
• Majesteigh 
• Allah
• Heaven-Princezz-Star
• Lucifer 
• Lord