Swedish couple demand right to name baby 'Q'

A Swedish couple's battle to name their son "Q" will shortly arrive on appeal at the Supreme Administrative Court, aka Regeringsrätten, which will determine if current regs allow single-letter first names. The parents insist the sprog is not named in honour of the James Bond gadgetmeister, but is rather the victim of a wayward …

[Anonymous Coward]

how about

<null> as a first name, that one would upset sql databases

[Doug Southworth]

I don't see the big deal.

So what if they want to name their kid Q? Why should the government care?

Worse case scenario if they lose their appeal, they could name the child Queue...

IT Angle?

[Rob Haswell]

Q Who?

I'm sure with all the coverage of the new film, El Reg readers today are thinking less of a Bond gadgeteer and more of an omnipotent, obnoxious twat that introduced the federation to the borg.

[Anonymous Coward]

50% of Swedish stories on this page...

... are from blokes named Mike. Are they all related? Enquiring minds demand an answer.

[M7S]

ST TNG

is where they probably got it from.

Cheers, the token Security Guard, (episode 87).

Red T-shirt please.

[Anonymous Coward]

Little Bobby Tables

er yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

@Doug Re: I don't see the big deal.

"IT Angle?"

Well a queue is another name for a FIFO stack.... ;-)

[John Robson]

And in my defence

I present an XKCD cartoon, to show how evil I could have been :)

[Luke McCarthy]

You may only use names on the government-issued official names list

At least they didn't call it "P".

[Ken Hagan]

Re: I don't see the big deal.

"Why should the government care?"

Beats me, but social services should open a case file right now. These people are clearly bonkers and the poor kid is going to have a rough time in the playground just because two twats decided to have their day in the papers.

[Anonymous Coward]

'wot no star trek reference....

hang your head in shame El Reg!

[Andrew Moore]

Alternatively...

They could call the child John DeLancy

[Toastan Buttar]

Spies on a park bench

Spy 1: "My child is named 'Q'"

Spy 2: "There are stranger names in the valley"

<They swap briefcases and exit in opposite directions>

[Rolf]

Interesting names to give children

Well they could be more scwred and name the boy:

Queue'); Drop Table Students;--

That should realy do fun things to systems in the future.

See source at Exploits of a Mom: http://xkcd.com/327/

[Oliver Mayes]

@Doug Southworth

"IT Angle?"

Well, the Q from James Bond would be well worthy of a mention here, and I'm sure I'm not the only geek here who associates the letter Q with a character famously played by a certain Mr John de Lancie. If that isn't of interest to the IT community then I don't know what is.

(Thumbs up because it's the closest I can get to snapping my fingers.)

[Colin MacLean]

@IT Angle

How about FIFO?

[Matthew Brown]

Au contraire, mon capitaine...

Perhaps they are trekkies and have great plans for their sprog.

[al]

If they can name the kids after cities...

... why not letter of the alphaebt.

Case in point: Paris.

OTOH, if Paris was named after a letter in the alphabet it had to be Q.

(So the movie title "One night in Q" would still be funny).

[Ross Fleming]

I'm so sorry, he's from Barcelona

Qué?

[Colin Morris]

James Bond, my rrrsss.

... Any IT Sci-fI geek with half a brain knows the parents are innocently naming their little-un after the mysterious 'Q'. Possibly the greatest Star Trek TNG 'villain' of all time....

Thnk of the omnipotent beings for christs sakes....

[Doug Southworth]

@ AC 13:15

Nicely done. Beers all around!

[Paul Murphy]

Cue the queue of Q synonyms.

Could the child have a middle name of 'uit'?

Maybe they could have a competition to seek alternatives - I can think of 25 right off the top of my head..

ttfn

[John Savard]

Wrong Q

Now pay attention? It actually took me a few seconds to realize that, since this was a British site, the reference was to one Mr. Bond.... as opposed to Captain Jean-Luc Picard... du vaisseau spatiale Enterprise.

[Anonymous Coward]

thats nothing

I friend was going to name his son EVIL but had a daughter so she was named bubble.

[Philip Dagnan]

At least they didn't call it "P".

So when it died it would be an....

XP!!!

[Charles Hunter]

Alternative spellings... and Scrabble?

What does the letter "Q" sound like when uttered by a Swede? Why not name him queue, or cue, or ckuuu or something ridiculous like that.

Seems that where they live is pronounced like an "r". Perhaps the whole region is obsessed with Scrabble.

Doctor: Congratulations! It's a girl. Now lets see....the letters we have to choose from are: L, B, O and 3 E's. Not much to work with there.... hmmmmm.... Oh and your daughter was born on 5 May, so that gives you a triple letter score at least.

They are only naming him Q becuase they want him to grow up to be a high value citizen.

[Anonymous Coward]

@al "If they can name their kids after cities ..."

Except of course that the name "Paris" has been around for as long as Paris the french city has been so known, given that he was a character in the Trojan war, as mentioned in Homer's Iliad, which was written approx 5th century ...

[Anonymous Coward]

is Qbert too obvious?

no further comment

[Anonymous Coward]

Would the name ...

"0x51" (mildly pronouncable as "ocksee" or maybe "Otzi") as be acceptable? Maybe the EBCDIC encoding would sound better, but is anyone really that crazy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Campaign for return of Q to James Bond?

<Insert witty comment here>

[Danny]

Trekkers not trekkies

I upgraded a PC in a German office that had a Star Trek wallpaper, and the girl who it belonged to had the hair, clothes and mannerisms of a vulcan. Working in IT I bit my lip but I burst out laughing when I was introduced to her boss, who was a total ringer for Picard and was doubtless boldly going... Anyway, if the Swedes are Trekkers then they will try to name all their children Q.

[Anonymous Coward]

Parents please note

giving your child a crap / stupid name is not big and its not clever, remember they will pick your old peoples home....

i am sure you dont want to be in 'beatem and killem home for the infirm' do you?

[Big Pete]

This Åre area of which you speak

Does it have a local shop for the local people?

[al]

re:@al "If they can name their kids after cities ..."

Are your Saying Mr.& Mrs Hilton consulted Homer's Iliad before naming their daughter ?

Paris, coz she is being discussed. ;-)

[Alistair]

Qubit

After the quantum-bit and the first recorded unit of length (about 52cm apparently).

Then your offspring has career opportunities in both IT and hip-hop.

[Anonymous Coward]

@al

I'm saying it's not unreasonable for Mr + Mrs Hilton to name their kid after, well, a name. Like you would find in a baby book list of names.

If their other kids were called Geneva, Barcelona and Cornwall you might have a point.

It's like saying why did they choose the same surname as a chain of hotels - misses the moon by looking at the pointing finger.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a common name for firemen in the UK

the most popular, in no particular order, being: Q, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb

[Tom Ware]

My heartiest congratulations

to Mr and Mrs The Winged Serpent

"It's name is Quetzalcoatl... just call it Q, that's all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart!"