Law Regulates Newborn Names in Tajikistan to Preserve National Identity

In Tajikistan, a secular country with a Muslim majority and a population of about ten million, the law mandates that parents name their newborns according to a list issued by the Language and Terminology Committee.

Names that are unfamiliar or do not conform to the approved list are rejected. The official list contains 3,461 names and was last updated by Tajik authorities ten years ago.