NAMING your new bundle of joy Lucifer has been effectively banned by New Zealand's names registrar after it knocked back the odd request from three parents.

The country's Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has also ruled out using punctuation marks, such as full stops, asterisks, and virgules, as names.

It has been cracking down on mums and dads getting too creative with their children's names.

The list of 102 names rejected in the past two years includes Baron, Bishop, Duke, General, Judge, Justice, King, Knight and Mr, all deemed too similar to titles.



Messiah was also turned down, as was 89, and the letters, C, D, I and T.

The ruling marks a new hard line for the agency, which made headlines worldwide in 2008 when it approved strange monikers including Benson and Hedges (twins named after the cigarette brand), and Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter, both for boys.

One little girl was so traumatised by her name, Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii, that she had it legally changed at age nine.

Originally published as Crazy baby names banned