Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law banning a wide range of unconventional names for newborns.
The law signed on May 1 bans the use of numerals, punctuation marks, vulgar words, and titles in names.
The bill, initially discussed last year, was approved by parliament in April.
Parents in Russia previously were under no restrictions in choosing names for their children, and the authorities had no right to reject chosen names.
The absence of a law regulating names led to a legal standoff that began in 2002, when Moscow authorities refused to register a boy whose parents named him BOCh rVF 260602 -- apparently an abbreviation for Biological Human Object Born To Voronin-Frolova on June 26, 2002.
