A Norwegian mother was jailed after refusing to pay a fine for naming her newborn son ‘Gesher’ after authorities rejected it under Norway’s strict naming laws
Rather than pay the fine, Larsen chose to stick to her guns.(Image: David Fairclough via Getty Images)
A mum who was adamant about giving her newborn son a name she believed had come to her in a dream ended up in prison after refusing to back down in a protracted legal battle.
The peculiar case took place in Norway, where stringent naming laws led authorities to reject the baby’s name, sparking years of court appeals before the mother was ultimately incarcerated for refusing to pay a fine.
According to Erin McCarthy, speaking on the YouTube channel Mental Floss: “Norway is yet another country that regulates what parents can name their child. One Norwegian mother was fined about $210 for using the unapproved name ‘Gesher,’ and sent to jail when she didn’t pay. She protested, saying that she had been instructed to name her son Gesher, the Hebrew word for bridge, in a dream she had.”
This comes after the Liverpool ECHO revealed the 10 baby names for boys and girls that are making a comeback. The woman, Kirsti Larsen, had 14 children and said she experienced the dream shortly before the birth of her 13th child in April 1995.
She claimed a voice told her in English to call the baby “Bridge”, leading her to choose the Hebrew translation, Gesher, reports the Irish Mirror.
Larsen and her husband, Øyvind, appealed to the County Governor of Akershus(Image: Getty Images)
However, Norwegian authorities refused to register the name. Officials argued it was too foreign, not recognisable enough as a boy’s name, and too similar to the surname Geser.
Under Norway’s naming laws, which date back to the 1800s, names considered inappropriate or likely to disadvantage a child can be rejected.
Larsen and her husband, Øyvind, appealed to the County Governor of Akershus, but their challenge was rejected. The row eventually made its way to the district court, where they were handed a fine of approximately 1,600 kroner for failing to register a legal name within the required timeframe.
Rather than pay the fine, Larsen chose to stick to her guns.
“If we accept the fine, it’s like we’re admitting some kind of guilt,” she said at the time.
She also maintained that, even if they were defeated in court, “We’re still calling Gesher Gesher.”
She admitted that arriving at prison had been an emotional experience(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Because she was a stay-at-home mother with no income from which authorities could recover the money, the outstanding fine was converted into a two-day jail term.
Speaking to the Norwegian newspaper VG while serving her sentence in Fredrikstad prison in December 1998, Larsen said: “Many people bow down to Big Brother and pay their fines. On principle, I could not agree to this unreasonableness.”
She admitted that arriving at prison had been an emotional experience, saying: “I must admit that I felt an unexpected sense of shame when I got off the train at Fredrikstad railway station and had to ask someone to explain the way to the prison.”
Despite the ordeal, she insisted she had no regrets. “Of course I could,” she said when asked whether she could have chosen an approved second name to end the dispute.
“Now, it’s not like I follow everything I dream at night. And I’m not at all for giving my children the most extreme names possible.”
Defending her decision, Larsen stated: “The Sabbath is for man, man is not for the Sabbath. And Gesher is not so ugly, is it?”
