According to the National Registry, there are over 200 Icelanders who do not yet have names.
Part of the naming process in Iceland – apart from using committee-approved names – is to have said name registered with the National Registry. Whether taking time to decide on a name after the child has been born, or awaiting approval from the Name Committee for the name they would like to bestow on their child, not every Icelander born is immediately registered with a name.
RÚV reports that there are over 200 Icelanders older than six months of age who are named either “Drengur” (boy) or “Stulka” (girl), which are the equivalents of John and Jane Doe for first names. The gender split is relatively even, at 110 Drengurs to 112 Stulkas.
Sólveig Guðmundsdóttir, the director of the National Registry, said she doubts that all of these people are still without names. Rather, she suspects a good many of them do have names, but their parents simply have not gotten around to registering the change. About a third of the Drengurs and Stulkas live abroad as well, which gives more credence to this theory.
By law, names must be registered within the first six months. This is usually handled by religious groups such as the national church, and the National Registry does sound out mail reminders to new parents.
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