You can be Aagot, Arney or Ásfríður; Baldey, Bebba or Brá. Dögg, Dimmblá, Etna and Eybjört are fine; likewise Frigg, Glódís, Hörn and Ingunn. Jórlaug works OK, as do Obba, Sigurfljóð, Úranía and – should you choose – Vagna.
But you cannot, as a girl in Iceland, be called Harriet.
“The whole situation,” said Tristan Cardew, with very British understatement, “is really rather silly.”
Banning blatant slurs or directly offensive names is understandable, but unless Harriet means something really offensive there then it is just silly to have that restriction.
The article points out that it is mostly to conform with language structure, but that is still a bit heavy handed.
Might be a few name entry fields that disagree but yes, in the US, entirely valid.
Meanwhile in Iceland:
Banning blatant slurs or directly offensive names is understandable, but unless Harriet means something really offensive there then it is just silly to have that restriction.
The article points out that it is mostly to conform with language structure, but that is still a bit heavy handed.