Official NZ Naming Rules: Titles and Names You Can't Use in Aotearoa
New Zealand has some of the clearest baby-naming rules in the world. The Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act lets the Registrar-General decline a name that is offensive, unreasonably long, or resembles an official title or rank. Here is what that means in practice.
The three grounds for declining a name
A name can be rejected if it might cause offence to a reasonable person, if it is unreasonably long, or if it is or resembles an official title or rank without adequate justification.
In practice the third ground catches the most names each year: Justice, King, Prince, Princess, Duke, Major, Bishop, Sergeant, Royal and Emperor all appear regularly on the Department of Internal Affairs' declined list.
Length and characters
Each name is limited to 70 characters including spaces, and the full set of names must be made up of letters, with limited use of hyphens and apostrophes. Numerals, punctuation such as full stops, and symbols like / or * are not accepted - which is why names like "4Real" have been declined.
Macrons are supported for te reo Māori names, so Tāne, Kōwhai and Māui can be registered exactly as they should be spelled.
How registration works
Every birth in New Zealand must be registered with the Department of Internal Affairs as soon as reasonably practicable, and there is no fee to register. If a chosen name is declined, the Registrar-General will contact you and you can either justify the name or choose another.
You can change a child's name later by registering a name change, so a declined first choice is not the end of the story.
Names that have been declined in New Zealand
Published DIA lists have included Justice (by far the most common), King, Prince, Princess, Royal, Duke, Major, Bishop, Judge, Saint, Emperor, Knight, Constable and Sergeant.
Names that were declined on other grounds include ones written as single letters, ones made of punctuation, and names considered offensive.
This is a guide, not legal advice
Rules change and decisions are made case by case by the Registrar-General. Check the current guidance on the Department of Internal Affairs website (govt.nz) before registering an unusual name.