NEWS / Australian journalist puts Methamphetamine Rules as her son’s name on birth certificate

Australian journalist Kirsten Drysdale decided to test the limits of the Australian birth certificate system by naming her baby boy “Methamphetamine Rules”. The name was surprisingly accepted by the Births, Deaths, and Marriages office in New South Wales, and the baby was issued a birth certificate with the name “Methamphetamine Rules Drysdale”. Unless going through an arduous name change process, the child will now be stuck with the name for life.

Drysdale shared the video of her application process on YouTube on the “ABC TV & iview” channel.

“OK, well. That was pretty straightforward,” she states in the video as she submits the birth certificate application, “And, presumably, that name won’t go through, so now we wait.”

5 weeks later she received her son’s birth certificate showing “Methamphetamine Rules Drydale” as her son’s legal name.

“We thought we would submit the most outrageous name we could think of, assuming it would be rejected,” she states, “But it didn’t turn out that way – unfortunately Methamphetamine Rules slipped through the cracks.”

Birth certificates name are subject to review, but, according to the New South Wales Births, Deaths, and Marriages Office had “unfortunately slipped through”. The office noted that it will help the woman change her son’s name, but the baby’s registered name with the office will forever remain “Methamphetamine Rules”.

Australia generally has stricter naming requirements than the United States. Names that are deemed to be offensive, are against the public interest (e.g. Drive Drunk), have over 50 characters, include symbols, or contain an official rank or title such as Sir, Queen, or Prince, are not allowed.

In the United States, naming rules are managed by the states. For example, California currently does not allow names featuring diacritical marks, while Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, North Carolina, and Oregon allows accents and some foreign letters. First and middle names cannot exceed 30 characters, while last names cannot exceed 40 in the State of New York. In Massachusetts, the entire first, middle, and last name cannot exceed 40 characters. Illinois and Kentucky have practically no restrictions.

A&M Logos International hopes Baby Meth will soon be able to get his legal name changed to something more appropriate. In the meantime, we are here to assist you with the retrieval of US birth certificates from almost any jurisdiction. We can also get them apostilled and authenticated for use abroad. Call us today at (212) 233-7061 or e-mail us at info@apostille.us. You can also apply on our website.