🇩🇰 Baby Naming Rules in Denmark
Denmark is the only country on this site that maintains an official list of approved first names. Choosing from it is straightforward. Choosing outside it means applying and giving reasons.
- Legal basis
- Navneloven, the Danish naming act
- Authority
- Familieretshuset, the Agency of Family Law
- Deadline
- The child must be named within six months of birth
- How many names
- No limit stated for first names
- Sex of the name
- The list is divided into girls', boys' and unisex names
- Approved list
- Yes, published and searchable
The list
Familieretshuset publishes lists of approved first names, compiled and published under the naming act, and is required to keep them exhaustive, current and correct. The list is searchable, and it can be filtered to girls', boys' or unisex names, or narrowed by the length of the name or the letters it contains.
If the name you want is on the list, that settles it. This is the ordinary case and it involves no separate approval step.
Figures for how many names the list holds circulate widely and disagree with each other. Familieretshuset does not publish a total, so this page does not state one.
Applying for a name that is not on the list
A name that does not appear can still be applied for. The application asks you to justify why you want a name that has not been approved, and Familieretshuset decides.
The governing principle is that you cannot choose a name that may be detrimental to your child.
Timing matters if a baptism is planned. Where the child is to be named at baptism with a name that Familieretshuset must approve, and no decision has been reached by then, that name may not be used at the ceremony.
The system is looser than its reputation
Denmark's naming law is often described as one of the strictest in Europe, and before 2006 that was a fair description. The act was reformed that year and the range of permissible names widened considerably.
What remains is the structure rather than the severity: an approved list that most parents never need to look beyond, and an application route for everyone else.
Sources
Every statement on this page is taken from an official or judicial source. The links below go to the originals so you can check them yourself.
Last reviewed: August 2026. This page explains the rules in general terms and is not legal advice. Where a decision matters to you, ask the authority that will register the name.