Mum-of-four told her unusual name for newborn might be illegal

An Aussie mum-of-four feared she had run into legal trouble after giving her newborn son an unusual name.

Claire Alexander-Johnston, from Byron Bay in Australia, chose the name ‘Citizen’ but was told that the name could be illegal to use.

Mummy blogger Claire shared her struggle as she introduced her 10-day old son to her 117,000 followers on Instagram .

She wrote: “Sorry this naming business has taken so long! We had a bit of a curveball when we announced your name to our family, as someone pointed out, it’s possibly illegal to name you that in Australia, as it falls loosely under the category of ‘title’ like ‘King’, ‘Duke’, ‘Lord’ or ‘Captain’.

“We tried to change it. ‘Disco’ even came back into play! But nothing else felt right for you as a Libra, with a [very sensible and grounded] Capricorn moon. So Citizen you are, and always will be- a Citizen of the world.”

Claire’s three other children are called Atlas, Everest and Zephyr.

The Births, Deaths and Marriages in Australia consider a number of names unacceptable if they include swear words and unpronounceable names, like symbols and numbers.

It is also considered unacceptable if the name is contentious. Names such as ‘Commissioner’, ‘Inspector’, ‘Queen’ and ‘Citizen’ could fall into this category.

Claire and her husband revealed that they put the name through a simple test before deciding to use it, reported MailOnline .

She said: “When thinking about names we like, Rich and I would put it through the ‘can they be a rockstar or an accountant?’ test. [not that I particularly want either of these professions for any of my children, but you get the drift- “an adaptable name”!]”

But Claire’s post left some of her followers confused as they asked if she had the name approved or not.

One said: “Is this his registered name or was it not approved but you’re calling him it anyway? Just wondering!!!”

Another agreed: “So has it been approved by the BGM yet?”