Tom is banned in Portugal, whoever Tom is. No, it’s not some random person or super villain that’s been banned throughout the country, but the name itself has fallen afoul of the countries law makers.
It seems pretty odd for such a common name to be deemed illegal in such a democratic country. The name itself is not derogatory, rude or plain weird. I can understand why China placed a ban on the name @, and Malaysia banned Smelly Head, but Tom. What would Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Tom Jones think about that? Would they be extradited from the country and have their names covered in the credits? No, but we’ll get to that soon.
Why is Tom banned in Portugal?
The odd thing about the law in Portugal is that the name Thomas is legal, but any aliases are banned, and Tom is an alias of Thomas. But if you think banning aliases is bizarre, they have an official list of approved names that you must pick from. So for expecting parents this official government document would be akin to a baby name book that you can find from any book store, except you must choose one from the list.
This list of names that Portugal gives has some flexibility. For instance, if one parent is a duel national or a citizen of a foreign country, the law does not apply. If they are visitors to the country or permanent residents, the law doesn’t apply. But if you decide to seek citizenship, prepare to change your name to an approved one. But in saying all that, there have been reports of people called Tom being given the odd glare for harboring an unapproved name.
