Name, please.

Dearest Moonunit ...sweetest Dweezil ...no? How 'bout Krisis Mundial (we could call her Kris!)? No dice? How 'bout Pedro Pablo Ignacio Juan Francisco García y Gabaldón? Not allowed either? What's up with that?

Won't you sign in, stranger? Welcome to the wonderful world of "approved names" in Argentina. Like many European countries, La República has a list from which you are required to select your babies' names. There are even some rules regarding some of the approved ones.

Although US citizens can sometimes be shocked by weird baby names, most of us are astonished to find that countries like Germany, Denmark, Norway and France restrict you to a state compiled list (usually of about 10,000 names.) Lots of Latin American countries have rules but I think that Argentina is the only one with a European style list.

Even if the kid's name is on the list, you might not get it approved if it doesn't meet certain qualifications.

For example, you can name your boy María ...but you have to put a masculine name in front of it. Likewise, you can name your girl José if you put a feminine name in front of it. Some other names like Cruz or Fé are non-gender enough to require a name before or after that indicates the sex of the child.

Some Japanese names get the OK ...if they are transmitted through the father. Native American names can be a hot topic sometimes ...but are generally given a lot of latitude.

The law from which all of these policies stem has 5 basic parts. First and formost, nothing embarrassing or crazy or "contrary to custom" nor anything that might confuse people as to the sex of the child.

Secondly, foreign names are either OK or not OK depending on ...whether or not they've changed the law. Argentina, with its great history of immigration has had to struggle with this many times. Currently, the law says that foreign names are prohibited except in the case of "castellano-ized" forms (e.g. Deysi ...which is on the list!) or if it's one of the names of one of the parents (as long as it's not too difficult to pronounce ...and has no Argentine equivalent on the list.)

That rule is why my wife's middle name is Ester ...when her mother's name is Esther. I think that by the time she was born, the name Ester had made it on to the list ...thereby taking away her option of using her mother's spelling of it.

Many foreign names have been incorporated in all their distinctive glory; Zbigniew is right there on the last page in perfect Polish spelling.

Children of non-citizens are, of course, not covered by the law and can be named anything they want ...as long as they are not permanently living in Argentina.

Third, no giving your kid a "last name" as his first name (something that is almost common in English, such as Stanford White, Humphrey Bogart, Jefferson Davis.) The first name Washington has, however, made it onto the list ...a name commonly associated with Uruguayos.

Number four is very straight forward: you can't name your kid the same name as any of his living brothers or sisters. Punto.

Finally, in the case of young "Pete" at the top of this post, no more than 3 first names to go along with his last name.

A lot of this stuff is up to the discretion of the judge at the Registro Civil that punches baby's first ticket. After grooving to the law for awhile, however, I think that I may have found something weird that just might fly! I don't see any rule against giving your kid the same name 3 times.

If the judge is from La Boca, "Diego Diego Diego Jones" just might make it through.