An Australian journalist wanted to test how the New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages processing system worked, so she named her son "Methamphetamine Rules," never expecting the name to get approved. She was wrong, and unexpectedly found herself with a newborn baby named Methamphetamine Rules. Names that are offensive are supposed to be rejected, but Kirsten Drysdale's name for her newborn slipped through the cracks, revealing that there might be some flaws within the system.
Kirsten Drysdale is a journalist, and says she named her baby Methamphetamine Rules "in the name of journalism." News.com.au reported that Kirsten was working on a story that involved investigating what kinds of baby names people can get away with. The story was for Australian Broadcasting Corporation's WTFAQ program, which aims to answer interesting questions that viewers have. When asked "What can I legally name my baby?" Kirsten clearly understood the assignment and took it seriously.
Giving a terrible name to a baby just for a story might seem like an awful and even irresponsible idea, but Kirsten said she understood the risks before moving forward with it — and her child is not actually stuck with that name. A New South Wales registry spokesperson said Kirsten can change her baby's name because the one she jokingly selected for her baby should've never been approved, the Daily Beast reported.
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"We checked what the risks were before we did it and we’ve shown that there probably needs to be some tightening up of the processes to make sure when people fill out these forms that they are actually checked properly," Kirsten said on A Current Affair, when she was interviewed by host Allison Langdon.
Still, Kirsten never imagined that she would receive her baby's official birth certificate in the mail with "Methamphetamine Rules" listed on the certificate. "We thought, what is the most outrageous name we can think of that will definitely not be accepted?" Kirsten told news.com.au. "Methamphetamine Rules we thought would surely get rejected, and then when it does, we can find out what name the Registrar chooses."
So how exactly did such a bad name get approved? It's unclear. Kirsten said she hasn't received a clear answer from the registrar but the registrar said it was a mistake. "I’m not sure if someone was overworked, or if it was automated somewhere. Or possibly, maybe they thought Methamphetamine was a Greek name," she said.
On A Current Affair, the host asked Kirsten some tough questions about this experiment. "I know that when you fill in a passport form you have to answer if you’ve gone by another name, so baby Meth won’t have to tick ‘yes’ to that?” she asked Kirsten. Kirsten explained that her baby's name change is not a simple "change of name." Instead, it's a correction, which is treated differently and doesn't require her child to indicate that they've gone by a different name before.
Kirsten's son's real name should be approved soon, and the new mom says she's keeping it a secret because she doesn't want his real name to be attached to this news story or the previous name. "It’s a beautiful name and I can tell you has nothing to do with class A drugs," she said. “We think it’ll be a very unique 21st birthday present to tell him this story.”
Kirsten emphasized that "no lasting harm" has been done. "The registry have been really good at working through this with us, acknowledging that it shouldn't have happened, and we're going through the process of getting a correction done, so it won't follow him around forever, it's not going to be on his birth certificate, he won't have to declare it as his name," she explained.
Kirsten's husband also thought her experiment was a bit ridiculous, but since the name will be changed, he didn't have much of an issue with it. "My husband said I was a 'fool,' well, he used a harder word than that, but he was fine about it really, because we're in the process now of getting it all sorted out," Kirsten explained.
