“We’ll look at family history,” Montgomery said. “If someone else in the family has had a similar name that’s a key one. If their grandfather was called Prince before this law came into effect we’ll look at that and say, ‘Yes, that seems reasonable.’”

  The rule against offensive names – in the past, names like Anal and Satan have been refused in New Zealand – was to protect children. Overly long names or those that include non-letter symbols can create administrative headaches and be difficult to pronounce.

 The ban on titles and rank was about the risk those names could be used for fraudulent purposes or to mislead the public, Montgomery said.