Professor Larson Interviewed on Baby-naming Laws by Circa

Professor Carlton Larson was interviewed by Circa on baby-naming laws in the United States and abroad. Larson is the author of “Naming Baby: The Constitutional Dimensions of Parental Naming Rights” (published in The George Washington Law Review in 2011).

“A lot of countries will monitor names they think are just bad for the child," said Larson. In the United States, baby-naming laws vary state by state, he said. U.S. baby-naming laws tend to focus on things like overly long names, diacritical marks, and obscenities. “They’re not as addressed to substance as they are form,” said Larson.

“We allow a lot of really bad names that other countries don’t allow,” Larson said.

Carlton Larson's research interests focus on constitutional law and legal history, with a strong emphasis on the 18th century.