Monday, June 20, 2011

I Have Been Banned?

Have you ever googled your name? I have a few times just for fun and other than my name being very common I am a very boring person. Recently I actually googled a girl named Michael and other that there being more of us then I thought I found some interesting facts.
  1. Michael is a Hebrew name meaning "who is like God" I actually knew this and like to tell people I am God like when ever they question my authority.
  2. In the year I was born Michael as a girl names was at its peak 0.036% of girls were named Michael that year. Guess mom was not as original as she thought.
  3. In 1994 there were 221 times more boys named Michael than girls named Michael
  4. In Sweden it is banned to name a girl Michael.
What? My name is banned in Sweden? Can you do that? And more important WHY????  Does this mean I can never visit Sweden?

The reasoning behind the Swedish Tax Agency's (which gets to approve all names) ban was it considers giving well-established boy names to girls to be inappropriate.

Michael hasn't always been the name I would have chosen for myself (once I discovered it was a "boy's" name I went by my middle name) but I have come to appreciate and love my name. It fits me to a tee. Does a name make a person? I think sometimes it influences the person we become. I believe that my personalty is in part is due to my name.

You grow up as a girl in small towns named Michael and see how you would turn out.

To read more on this Banned in Sweden.
Posted by Michael at 2:02 PM
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6 comments:

  1. junebugJune 20, 2011 at 2:08 PM

    That is pretty funny. One of my sorority sisters was named Michael and she moved to Sweden. I wonder if she had problems with her visa. Interesting tidbit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laura FingerJune 23, 2011 at 1:37 AM

    Okay, that's insane. But Banned in Sweden would make a cool band name.

    Coming over from Comment Hour. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. MichaelJune 28, 2011 at 10:22 AM

    Junebug - I would love to hear about your friends experience in Sweden. lol.

    Laura Finger - Would Banned in Sweden be a rock band or techno group?

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJuly 20, 2012 at 2:21 PM

    That is fascinating; what name do you go by if you use Michael for your middle name?
    I think our names do play some role in our lives.
    - New here from Chasing Joy :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MichaelJuly 20, 2012 at 3:32 PM

      I go by first name Michael or MJ (which I prefer). Some of my family prefers to call me by my first and middle Michael Jenny.

      Delete
  5. GillianJuly 20, 2012 at 9:22 PM

    Hi MJ,
    Connecting from Chasing Joy. I think it's kind of cool for you to have a boy's name. I went through a stage of not liking my name, Gillian in my late teens and decided my name was Lisa until an embarassing incident that I will not go into :)

    I've grown to like my name and the great thing is that I tend not to meet many Gillian's.

    Fitnessbuster by Gillian Stephen

    ReplyDelete

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