Alberta Has Some Of Canada's Toughest Baby Naming Restrictions & Here Are All The Rules

Sometimes people choose some, let's say, interesting names for their babies. However, it’s less likely to happen in Alberta, as the province has some of the toughest baby-naming restrictions in all of Canada.

Elon Musk and Grimes likely would not have been able to name their baby “X Æ A-12 Musk” in Alberta because the rules are pretty intense.

What you can call your baby

All first and last names must begin with a letter and must use the standard English alphabet of 26 letters.

According to Alberta’s rules, first and last names can also use Roman numerals, numbers that have been spelt out such as second or third, a space to separate names, such as David John, a hyphen to join names like Mary-Anne, or a single letter followed by a space or period.

While punctuation such as hyphens, periods and apostrophes are all fine to use, they can’t be used consecutively and there have to be letters in the name.

What you can't call your baby

The province says it can deny a requested name if it is “confusing, embarrassing to any other person, misleading or [...] offensive on any other grounds.”

The things you can’t use in a name in Alberta include pictograms, codes, hieroglyphics or actual numbers, such as “2” or “5.”

“Greek letters, Inuit letters, Arabic script or Kanji are not acceptable,” it adds.

You also can’t use symbols such as slashes or commas in any part of the name. Quotation marks and brackets also can’t be used to separate names.

According to Alberta’s baby name data, the most was Olivia, which has been in the top spot for the last eight years. It’s followed by Emma and Charlotte.

Noah, Oliver and Liam were the most popular boys' names in the province.