Strange baby naming laws of the world

Here in the USA it's not unheard of to meet babies with all sorts of strange baby names - or at least strange in a non-conventional sense. For example - popular celebrities name their kids Apple, Calico, Sweetheart, Dash and more. My son attends an alternative Free School and some of his peers are Z, Zen, K9, and Sage. In fact, I'm not really one to talk because at my house we've got two kids; Katana and Cedar, whose names won't ever make the most popular census list of names. We've also got a Jade, but her name has actually gained popularity over the years - even making the top 100 names in some years.

[Above - Cedar finds his own name at the World Forestry Center!]

Why do parents choose less popular names for their kids? Who knows - it's different for everyone. Here are a few explanations -- straight from the mouths of celebrities. In my case, my son's dad and me named our son Cedar because our favorite town in Montana is covered in Cedar trees, so it's significant to us. Also, having grown up as Jennifer, I get that everyone having your name can be just as obnoxious as no one having it. Be glad you live in the USA: If you didn't your baby name choices could be seriously limited. Mental Floss is running an awesome piece - 8 Countries With Fascinating Baby Naming Laws that shows how laws are very different in other areas of the world. For example...

• In Iceland they have an actual Naming Committee, a group that decides whether a new given name will be acceptable. Parents must pay a fee to get a "weird" name approved and it can't embarrass the child in the future and it must align with Icelandic traditions.
• In Denmark, parents must choose a baby name from a list of 7,000 pre-approved names.
• In New Zealand parents cannot name their children anything that might cause offense to a reasonable person or pick a name that is unreasonably long.

In some ways these laws make sense. I mean naming a child something like Stallion or Adolf Hitler or GoldenPalaceDotCom should be outlawed in my opinion. Naming your child something TOO out there or too connected with another unsavory individual seems mean. Of course like all things you have to accept the good with the bad. For example, in Germany, where you must be able to tell the gender of the child by the first name, my son's name would not have gone over well. Do you know how many times I've heard, "I thought Cedar was a girls' name?!" A lot. I also get this, "Did you say Peter?" and worse, "Oh, my friend has a dog named Cedar." Um, what do I say to that? Luckily, Cedar likes his name, has gotten used to correcting people on the spelling and doesn't seem inclined to change his name anytime soon. Read the whole piece - 8 Countries With Fascinating Baby Naming Laws. What are you naming (or did you name) your child? Do you like outside the norm names or traditional names?