Three Ukrainian lawmakers want to ban parents from giving their children weird names. The draft law is currently under consideration in parliamentary committees.
The law bans naming a child after geographical names, fictional characters,
inanimate
objects and names of flora and fauna. It is the idea of UDAR’s
opposition lawmaker Artur Palatny and two pro-presidential Party of Regions’
lawmakers, Volodymyr Mysyk and Elbrus Tedeyev.
Ironically, if Tedeyev was born in Ukraine after such
law had been adopted, his parents would not be able to name him Elbrus as it is
a name of a mountain in the Caucasus.
“The draft law
is motivated by the desire to protect the children from their parents’ fantasy,”
UDAR’s Palatny told the Kyiv Post in justifying the bill.
Mysyk from the
Party of Regions says that during the past 10 years Ukrainian parents have been
giving their children strange names more frequently in order “to glorify themselves by means of
their children.”
Lawyer and
human rights activist Eduard Bahirov says that it’s the lawmakers who just want
“cheap PR.” He is certain that the draft
law will not only get enough votes, but also will not even be put to a vote.
“The lawmakers spend their precious time inventing various stupid laws instead
of engaging in the adoption of laws relating
to economy, culture and domestic and foreign policies,” Bahirov added.
It’s not clear
how many people could potentially be affected if the law comes into force. The
State Registration Service of Ukraine, a government body that registers
people’s names in Ukraine,
says that some Ukrainians like giving their kids exotic names.
After Ukrainian
TV recently broadcasted Turkish soap opera “Magnificent Age” about the times of
Turkish ruler Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Ukrainians started naming their
children Sultan more frequently. Knyaz (Prince), Malvina, Knyaginya (Princess),
Ophelia , Nartsis (Narcissus), Svitozar are among the most unusual names Ukrainian
parents gave their children in 2013.
Bahirov
believes that this draft law interferes with personal lives of Ukrainians.
“This is not just intervention into citizens’ personal space, it’s simply
invasion,” he said.
This is not the
first time when Ukrainian lawmakers file controversial laws. On April Fools’ Day
in 2012 a lawmaker from the opposition Batkivshchyna faction Serhiy Teryokhin
registered the draft law proposing to start a National Holiday of Improvement
to mock President Viktor Yanukovych.
The word
“improvement” was heavily used by Yanukovych during his 2010 presidential
campaign by promising people “life improvement.” Other opposition lawmakers
Liudmyla Denysova and Andriy Senchenko proposed add notions and punishment for
“political pimping
or involvement
in political prostitution” to Ukraine’s
criminal code. Petro Yushchenko, former lawmaker and brother of Former Ukrainian
President Viktor Yushchenko, once proposed to hold official celebration the
wedding anniversary of Princess Anne of Kyiv, the daughter of Kyiv’s ruler Yaroslav
the Wise, with the king of France Henry I.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be
reached at [email protected]
