Photo by Nanna Árnadóttir

The Name Committee has made some new rulings, one of which may interest residents with foreign parents.

RÚV reports that the Name Committee has ruled the names Dylan and Eileithyia banned for newborns. If you already have this name, you do not have to change it.

The committee also decided that Þingey was perfectly fine as a girl’s first name, but under no circumstances could it be a middle name. “The name bears all the signs of being a given name”, the committee ruled, pointing out that according to Icelandic law, first names could not be used as middle names if they were most commonly used as first names. This applies equally to boys and girls.

However, one of the more interesting rulings to come out of this whole thing is the committee’s decision to allow a young woman with a foreign father to give herself the surname Pétursdóttir, despite the fact that her father is named Piotr. The committee ruled that they could find no reason to prevent this woman from giving herself a patronym that uses the Icelandic version of her father’s name.