New Zealand Continues to Ban a Type of Name That’s Wildly Popular in the US

We already knew this, but New Zealand has pretty strict naming rules. While it seems as though you can name kids anything and everything in the United States (and trust us, we’ve seen some rather unique names), New Zealand will downright reject names. In 2023, they primarily rejected royalty-based names like Queen, Royal, and Bishop; and now, the same thing is happening. New Zealand has primarily rejected royal-based names again in 2024, despite it growing rapidly in the United States.

According to an Official Information Act inquiry, nearly 60,000 babies were born in New Zealand last year; and dozens of names were rejected. And once again, the most rejected name was King. See the rejected requests below:

Related story These Are the Top Trending Baby Names in the U.S. Right Now, According To Google

Now, per the New Zealand Law Society, names should be less than 70 characters long, and it won’t be accepted if it “resembles an official title or rank” or are made up of symbols that aren’t international characters like macrons or umlauts.

While these may be a no-go in New Zealand, the US is very different. In fact, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration, they’re rising in the ranks in the past few years!

King was ranked 266 of the most popular names in 2023, Royal was ranked 402, Prince was ranked 364, and Princess was ranked 919, to name a few. And if you look at the data, these royal baby names are all climbing the ranks year-over-year in the US.

Before you go, check out everything we know about Princess Lilibet and the alleged controversy around her name.