A woman was left “devastated” after her daughter’s passport application was rejected because she was named after a Game of Thrones character.
Lucy, 39, from Swindon in Wiltshire, said the Passport Office initially refused the application for Khaleesi, six.
Officials said they were unable to issue a passport unless Warner Brothers gave permission because it owned the name’s trademark. But the authority has since apologised for the error.
The idea that corporations could own your name is positively dystopian.
All the women named Madison suddenly owe royalties to the rightsholders of the 1984 mermaid-in-Manhattan comedy Splash. Also, anyone named Wendy has to pay the J. M. Barrie estate or change their name to Gwendolyn.
This has been pissing me off for so long!
In fact anyone using surnames as first names. Stop it.
owned the name’s trademark
People really don’t understand trademark despite it being in the name. It’s a trade mark. It’s a mark on something you trade. It only applies to commercial products. Unless Warner Brothers sells children there’s no trademark violation.
Unless Warner Brother’s sells children
With the way the world is lately, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.
When they age out of the It’s A Small World cast, Disney sells them to Nestlé.
Poor kid gonna grow up and watch the show where she was named after right before the final season.
There’s a final season? I’m pretty sure they decided to wait for GRRM to finish the books as it would be silly to just go off the map and start making things up, as that could go awfully wrong.
I sure hope they don’t rush it just because they want to go do some other projects!
My name is alarmingly close to one of the characters (my mate who was reading the books when they first came out thought it was hilarious), but at least I’m not the newsreader Jon Snow.
Imagine the number of times people have smugly said to him, “you know nothing!” Ina bad Scottish accent.
First season is heavy enough isn’t it? Life lessons:
- get abused by your family
- get burned
- get fucked
Official explained there had been a misunderstanding and the guidance staff had originally given applies only to people changing their names.
It’s still fucked
Mental how many people actually thought Khaleesi was the character’s name.
Do you think maybe it’s just the fictional version for all the people that named their children Earl, Princess, Queen, Duke, or any of the other titles that became names?