Her name was Nikita: the State Duma proposed introducing control over children’s names

Whatever you name the yacht, as you know, that’s how it will sail. And in human destiny, the name also plays an important role. So the goals of State Duma deputy Tatyana Butskaya (United Russia), who proposes to ban calling boys by female names, and girls, accordingly, by male names, are undoubtedly noble. But here are the means… It’s probably worth working on the means.

“Instances of parents assigning names to children that do not correspond to their gender have become more frequent,” states the explanatory note to the bill prepared by the deputy. “For example, at the birth of a girl, her parents gave her the name Mikhail.” The parliamentarian proposes to abolish such freedom by introducing appropriate restrictions on the work of registry offices.

Let us remind you that according to the current law “On Civil Status Acts”, children can, in principle, be named whatever they want. Only names that are not allowed are those that consist “of numbers, alphanumeric designations, numerals, symbols and non-letter characters, with the exception of the hyphen, or any combination thereof” or contain “expletive words, indications of ranks, positions, titles “.

It is clear, however, that it will be very difficult to implement Butskaya’s idea in its current form. Well, that is, of course, it is possible to implement it, but it is impossible to stop gender-onomastic confusion with the help of such a law.

The problem, by the way, is much older than it seems to the respected deputy. Or, in view of Tatyana Viktorovna’s strict attitude towards gender issues, is it more correct to say “dear deputy”? But for now we will stick to the usual form.

So, let’s remember the lines of Gogol’s immortal “Dead Souls”: “What kind of guy is this: Elizaveta Sparrow. What an abyss: woman! How did she get in here? Scoundrel, Sobakevich, he cheated here too!” Chichikov was right: it was definitely a woman. How she got there is unknown, but she was so skillfully written that from a distance one could mistake her for a man, and even her name ended with the letter ъ, that is, not Elizaveta, but Elizavet.”

Well, as for “Elizabeth”, then, as we see, calling both male and female persons that way was against the rules. There was no such name in the calendar. But, let’s say, Tatyan (Tatian) was in the calendar – and remains. Although, of course, it cannot be classified as a common name. But women were called Mikhail, by the way, not so rarely. There are even famous historical figures among them.

Example: Reverend Martyr Michaela (Ivanova) – schema-nun, shot in 1937 at the Butovo training ground. And even now this name is in use. True, mainly, as in former times, in nunneries. So what? Let’s take, for example, such common names as Inna or Rimma. At first glance, they are purely feminine. But they were initially included in the calendar as men’s: they were worn by the disciples of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, revered by the Orthodox Church as martyrs.

In a word, even if you take only Russian names, it’s not surprising to get confused with gender. But our country is multinational: many peoples and even more names. And if in the localities it is still possible to understand in some way who is who, which name is male, which is female, then outside the national regions, this issue can be sorted out – so as to completely eliminate the naming of children with names that “do not correspond to their gender” – well , is completely impossible. But there are, besides this, parents and names that originate from outside the country. Here the devil and the registry office will break your leg.

And in any case, this does not affect the second layer of the problem: the name entered on the birth certificate may not coincide with the real, family name. Well, the parents will register the girl for Nadya’s sake. And the name, being subject to the corrupting influence of Western cinema, will be Nikita. Contrary to traditional values ​​and Butskaya’s law.

There are only two ways out of this impasse. The first way is this: to compile state calendars – a clear, complete, exhaustive list of names that can be called in the Russian Federation for girls, and the same, of course, for boys. And not one step, not one iota, not to retreat from them, tracking, catching and harshly punishing “domestic” lawbreakers.

The second is to follow Viktor Chernomyrdin’s well-known parting words to the deputy corps: “Whose hands are itching, scratch them somewhere else.” In general, don’t bother. If the state trusts the “unit of society” in such important matters as the birth and upbringing of a child, then, I think, it can also trust it in the matter of choosing a name. And if he doesn’t trust, then “nominal” control won’t help.

However, the second route has one significant disadvantage. Well, what else, tell me, should the elected representatives of the people do? And the naked eye can see that energy flows out of them, and there is not enough scope for amateur creativity, not constrained by political restrictions. In short, there is probably no other place for scratching.