Norway edition

Norway won't let child have 'foreign' name

Published: 30 Nov 2011 18:28 GMT+01:00 | Print version
Updated: 30 Nov 2011 18:36 GMT+01:00

A proud mother and father in Stavanger in south-western Norway have had the joy at the arrival of their new baby girl somewhat tempered by the authorities’ inability to register her name.

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Mother Anna Drangeid Risholm told local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad she wanted baby Livia to grow up with the last names of both her parents.

But the surname of the 7-week-old's Spanish father, Juan Carlos Carpio Patiño, proved too much for a population registry that can’t handle most diacritical marks.

This means the baby now goes by the name Livia Patino Risholm in all official documents, much to the consternation of her mother.

“Patino is a completely different name from Patiño. It’d be like calling me Hanna instead of Anna,” she told Stavanger Aftenblad.

The tax administration tasked with registering people’s names admitted it had been caught off guard by the arrival of so many immigrants to Norway in recent years.

“Some foreign symbols are accepted but only very few,” local population registry chief Inger Hageberg Øvrebø told the newspaper.

The only non-Norwegian letters that currently pass muster are Ä, Á, É, È, Ô, Ö and Ü. One tax agency boss said the introduction of more new symbols was fraught with its own set of problems, since this would vastly increase the likelihood of typing errors.

Hageberg Øvrebø hopes the list can soon be expanded but said it was expensive to add new symbols to the agency’s ageing system.

But she also stressed that it would remain difficult to keep everybody happy, citing her own name as an example of the problems the authorities face.

“My surname is never spelled correctly when I’m out travelling. And I would have had major problems if I’d tried to register Øvrebø abroad,” she told Stavanger Aftenblad.

That's scant consolation for Anna Drangeid Risholm, who still can't quite believe her daughter has been given the wrong name.

"I thought it was some sort of mistake," she told the newspaper. "With so many foreigners in the country, it's silly that they can't have their own family names."

The Local (news@thelocal.no)

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2011-11-30 23:41:00 by underskyofnorway

This is what the Norwegian agency should have been prepared before it happens! It sucks!

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2011-12-01 04:40:15 by kr0k0dile

Sometimes it's a learning process for immigrants to understand that they need to integrate, that includes language/names. There's no need for a country to comply w/ individuals insisting on their foreign language. We don't live in a world w/ a common language; this shouldn't be too hard to comprehend. Other countries are proud of their own cultures (which includes language). Let others learn to assimilate & learn to love Norway. Teach them how, beginning w/ language. It's common sense.

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2011-12-01 08:26:51 by Aurora the Pink

What kr0k0dile said. You'll encounter similar in other countries. Some people need to stop whining.

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2011-12-01 12:46:01 by strixy

I think it is a bit harsh to strip people off their heritage because of lack of appropriate keyboard functions (which sounds suspicious enough as most foreign symbols can be easily found in the common text editing software). If Norway wants to take advantage of cheap workforce from abroad, those people and their children should be able to retain such values as their name and heritage.

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2011-12-01 15:40:58 by BourgeoisieBohme

Might be better for the kid in the long run though. Having a foreign name and applying for a job... not the easiest way to start a career in Norway, just the way it is, nothing bad about it.

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2011-12-01 20:55:56 by Sendia

@kr0k0dile I cant agree more with you but someone who comes here on a temporary basis should be able to keep his or her name, you cant expect a third country to have the system to do this but this is Norway with the highest living standards, is it not. Talking about teaching about integration beginning with language? You are kidding me right? We are required to pay for our language classes after paying all the possible taxes!

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2011-12-01 22:24:56 by underskyofnorway

@kr0k0dile This is not integration! Please don't mix up everything! I'm wondering how you have lived in Norway and don't even know that the respect and values from people are kinda respect and values coming from the system! You pay high tax here and you should expect to have more services in return. This is how the system should work but if there is a weakness in the system that cannot give the people efficient services, then there is nonsense talking about integration!! Don't try to say something when you have nothing to say! Sorry!

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2011-12-02 08:18:52 by Aurora the Pink

Well geez, why not allow for Chinese characters and the Arabic alphabet while we're at it. All for the sake of "preserving culture", right? If you don't like the rules here, go somewhere else. Although don't expect that somewhere else to cater to your every little whim either.

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2011-12-03 03:14:59 by strixy

@Aurora the Pink I suggest you research the issue of transcription - it may be beneficial. Arabic, Russian and Chinese language can be transcripted phonetically. Such as some people write 'ss' in German instead of the appropriate sign. We are not talking about implementing different alphabets but about signs within one alphabet - Latin alphabet. A lot of people come to Norway temporarily and I don't see why they shouldn't be able to keep their names as they are. Just a reminder - Norway owes its economicl growth to the workforce from abroad what was confirmed by your politicians, so stop whining about it. Telling people to 'go somewhere else' it the classical example of delusions of grandieur that are all too obvious in this country. Not everyone is here by choice, some are here due to family circumstances and really, telling all the people your government has invited (the worldwide famous propaganda) to f*ck off is far away from the declared 'openess and democracy'.

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2011-12-04 14:09:10 by roaringchicken

Accept the name as it is registered as a relatively minor operational imperfection of the superb country you choose to live in, and write the name correctly whenever you use it, it's that simple. I agree, stop whining.

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2011-12-04 15:14:29 by Taiji218

Anybody choosing to live in Norway should accept the consequences of that choice, rather than trying to "have their cake and eat it too." Choosing to live in a particular country should mean assimilating to the mores and culture of that country--not the other way around. Multiculturalism has failed and it always will. As an American of primarily German and Finnish ancestry I've seen it in my own history. Finns with last names such as "Mäkinen" Anglicized their names to "Hill" fairly regularly, whereas other families changed the spellings of their names so that it would be pronounced correctly by non-Finnish-Americans ("Pekkala" being changed to Bekkala, for instance. Other families simply removed the characteristically Finnish double-consonents in their names, as it tends to be confusing to English speakers: "Karppinen" being changed to simply "Karpinen," for instance). On the German side, one of my relatives changed the family name from the Germanic Wahl back around WWI to the more English-sounding Wall, which it remains to this day. The idea that Norwegians should "be more flexible" and make way for an ever-increasing number of exceptions to the way they run their country and culture is an idea that fails in the long run. Instead of multicultural social harmony, which is the ideal behind multiculturalism, you get in reality what's been called Balkanization, where you have separate cultural enclaves isolating themselves from the larger culture in perpetual social hostility. At best you end up with a weakened sense of your own culture amidst a sea of confusing differences and a vague sense of national guilt for ever taking pride in calling yourselves "Norwegians."

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2011-12-05 01:36:52 by poomarkku

There is simply no right to bring one's culture to another country. Simple.

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