(Purely trivial, unclench your intestines!) First, the good news: Lizette Alvarez of the NYT came by to interview us about the whole naming law thing today and seems to share our amusement-cum-horror at the obscenity that is this law. (And for what it’s worth, she seemed to think Molli Malou was a fun and beautiful name.) What’s more, the freelance photographer who accompanied her took dozens of photos of Molli. Not sure when the article will come out, but I’ll obviously let you know as soon as I find out!
The bad news is, they’d also met with the guy in charge of administering this whole terrible law, and it looks like the name Molli just ain’t gonna pass muster. Apparently he pretty much just searches the Internet and if he can find 25 or so instances of a given spelling of a given name in a single culture, he approves it. We Googled “Molli” while they were here and found… a lot of dogs, cats, legislation, steam engines, and even swamp turtles (do a Google search on “named molli”), but only a tiny handful of human beings.
I don’t think we’re crazy enough to want to take on the whole Danish government over this thing… we may have to end up caving and going back to Molly or Mollie. It’s just so wrong… I think we’ll keep her as “Molli” whatever the birth certificate says. Or maybe not. I don’t know. It’s just horrible and awful.
But remember, the U.S. government is the real Big Brother, because the government might someday look into what books you checked out at the library. If they have reason to suspect you may be involved in terrorist activities. And a judge approves it.
Aaaaaaaarrghh. Doesn’t the Danish government know that a rose by any other name, and so on, et cetera?
FIRST OF ALL, I MET THIS GUY VINNIE WHO HADDA MOVE FROM LITTLE ITALY DUE TO A SIMPLE MISUNDERSTANDING WITH THE FBI,ATTORNEY GENERAL, NYPD AND MAYBE MORE, BUT.. HE KNOWS SOMEONE WHO HAS A GUY THAT KNOWS A GUY,,ANYWAY..
MAYBE THE NAME CAN WORK OUT..SOME VAUGE THING ABOUT TUG BOATS AND CEMENT..
MOLLI IS VERY CUTE AND WE ALL HOPE TO MEET WITHA LL OF YOU SOON..VINNIE HAS A PLANE WE CAN USE..LITTLE DRAFTY WITH THE BULLET HOLES,,BUT..
Okay, I have to ask it.
why isn’t “Willie the Cat” “Willi the Cat”?
Sorry, it was in my had – had to come out.
Deb
We did! That is, Trine did. The letter I drafted was a little too… colorful. Trine’s letter was very reasonable and made all the significant points I made above. And maybe this guy’ll see reason. But everything I’ve heard about him is that reason is not his strong point and that spelling is his particular bugaboo. Anyway, no sense getting worked up about it until we know for sure, I suppose…
Okay, so why don’t you tell the Danish government what you just told me?
Deb
That was like the worst Devil’s Advocate ever!
Danish names like “Klaus” and “Jakob” can be spelled with a C instead of a K, so that anyone with such a name has to say, “Klaus with a K” or “Jacob with a C.” Also, many American names are “misheard” or misspelled in Denmark. The name Sophie, for example, would, if read aloud by a Dane, be pronounced So-fee-uh. A Dane hearing Sophie as pronounced by an American would probably spell it Sofi and wonder why there was no trailing E. The name Anne is pronounced in Denmark exactly the way we pronounce Anna. So the “pain and suffering of an alternatively spelled name” argument simply doesn’t work for this dual-citizen baby.
A better Devil’s Advocate argument would probably be: you wanted Molly originally, but changed the spelling to Molli to make it easier for Danes to grasp. Now that you’ve learned Danes can indeed grasp the Y spelling, why not go back to it?
The answer is, whatever our reasons, WE HAVE NAMED OUR DAUGHTER. The Danish government wants to change her name. And that just ain’t right.
Okay. Somebody has to play devil’s advocate here and it might as well be me. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, all the %^&! you are going through with this naming thing is kind of an omen for things to come.
I know that I’ve said this before but EVERYONE is going to spell Molli’s name wrong for the rest of her life. Now maybe she is the kind of kid who can handle this, but maybe not.
Anyway, I love the name Molli and I think it is ridiculous that you have to go through all this.
Good luck as you press on!
Deb (who hates the spellings Debra, Debbi, or Debby)
I shall call her Molli and write to her as Molli until and unless she tells me otherwise.
the hell with the Danish Government. Spell it any way you like except on her Legal documents. If you spell it Mollie she can just learn to drop the e. Simple, n’est pas?
Glad the interview went well and look forward to seeing Molli in the times. Please keep us posted on the date – if they even let you know.
thanks for the update.
Mom
this falls squarely into the “doesn’t the government have anything better to do?” category. out of curiousity, does “malou” make the cut on the approved list? do middle names count? if not, could you really cheese off the copenhagen bureaucrats by naming her “molly molli” or “molly by-golly-i’m-not-molli” or “molly ilovesweden”?
anyway, she’s cute whether she’s molli or molly. i can’t wait to see her picture in the times!
gene