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Five names you can’t give your baby in Sweden

Sweden has strict rules when it comes to naming a newborn child, as some parents have discovered over the years.

Published: 19 September 2024 15:14 CEST

Five names you can't give your baby in Sweden

As far as we know, this baby is not called Vladimir Putin, Ford or Q. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

Here are some examples of names the Swedish Tax Agency has rejected.

Lucifer

Despite the fact that the name Lucifer means “light-bearer” in Latin and was originally the name of an angel, the Tax Agency in 2020 rejected the request of two parents’ from Uppsala who wanted to give the name to their child.

Although the agency deems other angelic names, like Gabriel and Michael, to be perfectly acceptable, it rejected Lucifer on the basis that it’s associated with the devil and therefore could cause offence, according to Upsala Nya Tidning (UNT).

There are 114 Lucifers living in Sweden, according to the Tax Agency.

Skatteverket’s decision to reject the name was upheld on appeal in court.

Pilzner

Another couple were also barred from using their first choice of name for their son born in August 2017.

They hoped to name the baby boy Pilzner after his father and grandfather – and the Pilsner lager.

“My father was known as Pilzner because he used to drink Pilsner,” the baby’s father, Matz Pilzner Johanneson, said to SVT Halland.

“I only drink Pilsner and since I was young, I have been referred to as Pilzner.”

Johanneson legally changed his first name to Matz Pilzner as an adult, and said he and his wife were “very disappointed” by Skatteverket’s decision regarding their three-month-old.

The agency ruled that the name, like the beer itself, was not suitable for a child.

Vladimir Putin

The name may be good enough for the Russian president, but not for Swedish authorities, who rejected a couple’s request to give their son two first names: Vladimir Putin.

In 2021, the couple, from the town of Laholm in southern Sweden, had their request rejected. It’s not clear exactly on what grounds the Tax Agency rejected the name – whether it was deemed to risk causing a problem for the child, or due to the fact that first names that clearly resemble surnames aren’t allowed (or perhaps both).

According to the Tax Agency, there are 1,483 people in Sweden who have Vladimir as a first name, and two who have it as a surname. Just one person in Sweden has the first name Putin.

Ford

The rule against using surnames as first names has caused issues for other couples as well, especially those who come from parts of the world where it’s more common to use surnames as first names, like North America.

In 2018, a Swedish-Canadian couple was banned from using the name Ford, despite the fact that it was a name the couple found in the father’s family tree.”We wanted to give our child an older name, a traditional one from my family. So we looked through my father’s family tree and found Ford there. We thought that name was really cool and wanted to bring it back,” Joeseph Kendrick told The Local at the time.

Finally, a couple back in 2009 was banned from giving their child the somewhat unusual name Q, perhaps inspired by the quartermaster in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, who went by the same name.

The couple, from Jämtland, argued that not only had their son been called Q since he was born, but he also responded to the name, so it therefore didn’t cause him any problems.

Unfortunately, the courts didn’t buy their argument, arguing that Q is a letter of the alphabet which is not typically used as a first name.

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How to use Swedish parental leave to spend four months with your baby back home

From July 1st this year, parents of newborns in Sweden are allowed to take up to 60 so-called “double days”, when both parents receive parental benefit at the same time, meaning they use up 120 days of shared leave.

This means that if each partner also takes a month of parental leave solo at the same time as the other takes their full 25-day holiday entitlement, couples working in Sweden can enjoy a full four months together away from work, allowing them to travel back to their home country to share those precious first months with their friends and family.

Swedes already do this to enjoy a long holiday with their new born infants, with schools established in some of the most popular resorts in Thailand so that parents can bring school-age children with them, leading to envious reports in the Swedish newspapers.

If you still have days left for another, previous child, you can add in these too, stretching your paid time off from work even longer.

We asked Anna Stenhoff, an executive at the Swedish Social Insurance Agncy, how the system works.

READ ALSO:

Sweden’s 480 days of parental leave: What you need to know

What’s the maximum amount of time you can be abroad on parental leave?

There are different rules for the 390 days that you are paid at sickness level (80 percent of salary) and for the 90 days paid at the minimum level of 180 kronor a day. There are also different rules for stays inside and outside the EU.

Under Sweden’s rules, sickness level parental leave is a work-based benefit. This means you remain entitled to it for as long as you are employed in Sweden and have a child resident in Sweden.

In practice, this generally means you and your child can stay outside the EU and collect sickness level parental leave for up to a year, so long as you do not, say, decide to work for a new employer in the country where you are working, or are not made redundant from your job in Sweden.

“So long as you keep your job, you can take that leave abroad,” Stenhoff told The Local. “But for parental benefit specificially the child has to be a resident of Sweden, so that’s why the one year kicks in, because typically after a year, the child would no longer be a resident of Sweden, which is a qualificiation for the benefit.”

The 90-days paid at the minimum level, however, is a residency-based benefit, which under Sweden’s rules can only be collected ouside the EU for up to six months, so long as you are still considered resident in Sweden.

“Normally, if you travel abroad on holiday, that’s not an indication of changing residency, but if you moved abroad, you would lose this benefit from day one,” Stenhoff said.

This means you risk losing the benefit at minimum level if you, for instance, inform the Swedish Tax Agency that you have moved to a country outside the EU, or changed your official address to an Indian address, or changed a child’s school to an Indian school.

The rules on work- and residency-based benefits are more generous for stays in another EU country, with the general rule being that you can be in another EU country for up to a year and still receive your benefits.

“It’s more generous in the EU, but it’s also more complicated,” Stenhoff said, adding that as the rules changed, for instance, depending on your job and whether you have family members in the other EU country.

This means, she says, that it is “always a good idea” to ring the Social Insurance Agency to discuss your situation before you leave.

How will a stay abroad affect work or residency permit extensions?

If you only have temporary residency in Sweden through a work permit, you may need to be more careful before taking parental leave outside the EU.

In theory, you can be out of Sweden for six months or more without causing issues when you later apply for an extension, as both being on parental leave and taking the holiday you are entitled to in your job are seen as “an acceptable reason to interrupt your employment” under work permit rules.

This is not the case, however, if the time you have been away from work greatly exceeds the time you were actually working.

“If you have not worked at all, or have only worked for a very limited period of time, your application for a permanent residence permit may be rejected,” the Migration Agency warns on its website.

It’s a good idea to ring the Migration Agency before departure to check that your planned stay will not affect your chances of receiving a new work or residency permit, permanent residency, or citizenship.

What do you need to do before you go abroad?

Even if you are travelling outside the EU, EEA or UK, when it comes to parental benefit, it is not obligatory to inform the Swedish Social Insurance Agency or request permission to take your leave internationally, Stenhoff said.

She nonetheless believes it is a good idea to ring the agency to check that everything you planned to do is within rules, pointing out that for several other benefits, it is obligatory to inform them if you leave the EU.

You should also keep documents or print-outs from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency and also from your employer of the days you have taken of parental leave and holiday, as you may need to send these to the Migration Agency when you apply to extend your work permit.

The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare recommends that parents planning to travel abroad with a baby also inform the childcare unit or barnavårdscentral (BVC) that they are registered with of their plans at least a few months before they depart, so that they can ensure that your baby has all the vaccinations they need to travel safely abroad.

In Sweden, BVCs normally invite you to around 13 visits during the child’s first year, so if you plan to be away for up to six months of this, they may also wish to carry out some essential checks before you go.

Which bank account can I be paid into?

If you are receiving benefits abroad, it is easier to have them paid into a standard Swedish bank account. It is, however, possible to have them paid into a foreign bank account, so long as it is in the name of the beneficiary and it has passed the money-laundering and other anti-fraud checks run by the agency’s payments division. You can register a new bank account by logging into the Social Insurance Agency here.

What about if I have a child at school or day care?

There is currently no requirement to send your child to daycare in Sweden, but many municipalities automatically take away your place at preschool if your child is away for two months or more without a good reason.

You may well be able to get around this if you are away for three or four months by explaining your plans to the preschool head. If you want to keep your child’s place you will have to continue paying the monthly fee while you are away.

It is compulsory in Sweden for all children between the ages of 6 and 16 to attend school, however. This means that if you are planning on taking your child out of school for two or three months, you need to convince the headteacher that you have “extraordinary reasons and special circumstances” to do so.

Whether they say ‘yes’ depends on how liberal they are, but you are quite likely to have your request denied, particularly in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, where the municipalities face a recurring problem of chldren being taken out of school without permission.

Acceptable reasons include family celebrations such as weddings and funerals, and important religious festivals. You are unlikely to have a request accepted for a holiday.

For periods longer than a few months, you will need to apply to your municipality for a temporary exemption from compulsory schooling. You can find the application form for Stockholm here, and the city government’s explainer on taking your child overseas here.

The chances are that if you take a child away for longer than a few months, they will be declared no longer covered by compulsory schooling, meaning they will lose their school place and you will have to reapply on your return.

There is no statutory regulation saying what counts as a long or short time overseas, but in Malmö, for example, any journey longer than 10 days needs to be approved by the school head, and anything over six months is very likely to lose you your school place.

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