Parents of 26 babies have refused to give their babies names offered by the approved list of names and applied to a special commission set up at the Committee on Language and Terminology (Committee) under the Government of Tajikistan. Applications of two of them have been denied.
“The commission has denied applications by parents of two babies who wanted to name their babies Obloqul and Asmoa,” the Committee chairperson, Ms. Gavhar Sharofzoda, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Obloqul is a shortcut version of “Allah Akbar” while Asmoa performs a generalized meaning of nouns,” the commission representatives noted.
Meanwhile, Obloqul is translated from the Uzbek as Slave of God, which is a term used for individuals by various religions. This name is quite popular in the northern Sughd province.
Asmoa is an Arabic woman name. Asmā' (Arabic سماءأ) was the name of daughter of Abu Bakr, who was the first Muslim Caliph. Asma’ bint Abu Bakr (595 – 692 CE) was one of the companions of Prophet Muhammad.
Recall, Tajik Deputy Minister of Justice, Hakim Mirsayzod, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 26 that Tajik authorities have prepared the list of 6,000 names that will be offered to parents.
“If parents want to give their baby name that is not on the list, they must apply to a special commission that will decide whether to permit them or not,” Mirsayzod noted.
Meanwhile, people of different nationalities living in Tajikistan may name their children in accordance with norms of their culture.
As it had been reported earlier, committees and commissions of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament began discussing the bill amending the country’s civil-registry law on November 30, 2015.
Under the proposed amendments, parents should name newborns in accordance with norms of Tajik culture.
The Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) endorsed a bill regulating the issue of giving names to newborns on January 13, 2016.
The bill bans to give newborns names humiliating human honor and dignity. For example, it bans to name children after animals, products, and inanimate objects such as Sang (Stone), Safol (Ceramics), Zogh (Crow), Gurg (Wolf) and so forth.
The amendments regulating the order of registering names, patronymics and last names were made to Tajikistan’s civil-registry law in March 2016.
Countries around the world have reportedly established various rules for naming children, most often including bans on names which use numerals and symbols. Thus, Chinese names must be in Chinese characters and specifically characters that computers can read. Denmark, Hungary, Portugal and Iceland all have lists of approved names and a few methods of applying for exceptions. New Zealand’s register reportedly has bans on names that would offend a “reasonable person,” include numerals, or resemble titles — so Lucifer, King, Anal and 4Real are out. Naming laws in the United States reportedly vary between individual states, with the few restrictions generally targeting obscenities, numerals, and characters that are difficult for computers to read.
