Blue Angel. Fuchsia. Ireland. Apple. Pilot Inspektor. Poppy Honey. Moxie CrimeFighter. Princess.

What’s your guess? PlayStation game characters? FBI operation code names?

Nice try, but no. They’re a selection of bizarre celebrity baby names. In their quest for originality and headline space, celebrities seem to be putting their kids’ future sanity on the line. But it’s not just A-listers who are picking words off cerial boxes and Kabbalah literature and putting them on birth certificates. Ordinary folks are doing it too. There’s Ish. And Jeehee. And Nattapong.

But thanks to Denmark’s Law on Personal Names, this crazy stuff can’t happen here. As the International Herald Tribune writes:

In Denmark, a country that embraces rules with the same gusto that Italy defies them, choosing a first and last name for a child is a serious, multitiered affair, governed by law and subject to the approval of the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs and the Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs…

About 1,100 names are reviewed every year, and 15 percent to 20 percent are rejected, mostly for odd spellings.

At first, I thought this rule was completely crazy. But then I realized it prevents people like George from Seinfeld from naming their kid Seven, and I thought - OK. With 7540 approved boy names and 9869 approved girl names, the good and not-too-weird names should be covered.

Right?

Wrong. My name, Anastasya, is not on the list. Anastasia is. Anastasiya is. But not my spelling. So I end up right up there with Camera and Pilot Inspektor, and I honestly don’t know how to feel about that.

To check if you name is on the list, visit the Approved Names Search page - and then let me know what you think about this naming business.

Check out this article about advertisers’ creative attempts to keep print ads alive. And a bit on how the web has changed the way the industry thinks about print ads.

Just earlier today, I saw an online ad for anti-wrinkle cream. I got to drag a bottle over a woman’s face and watch every imperfection disappear. With online ads engaging viewers in a whole new way, I can see why it’s hard for print ads to keep up.

Have you seen any great ads in your magazines lately?

I know I’m looking forward to hearing some new tunes when I open my next issue of Eurowoman.

I just got my Danish driver’s license. It came in the mail, pretty and pink, and I was so proud. I wasn’t nearly as thrilled about the American license I got 10 years ago.

Why? Because getting a driver’s license in Denmark is like getting a pilot’s license in North America. Apparently, young Danes used to fly to the US to get their licenses, because ”all they had to do was drive around the block.” That wasn’t good enough for Denmark, so the authorities make Americans work for it. And pay for it – everything combined, my Danish license cost me a whopping DKK 8,000, or $1,600!

What does this have to do with communication, you ask? Well, it turns out that I now have to learn a whole new language: that of Danish parking signs. I passed the test with flying colors, but am still baffled whenever I have to park in the city. And there seems to be no learning curve as I almost never see the same one twice!

This morning, for example, I saw a ”no parking” circle and arrows pointing up and down. But then why were there so many cars parked along the curb? When I stood under the sign and jumped to get a closer look, I saw the reason. It was in 10-point Arial and looked something like this:

<--- 6m | 6m --->

So 6 meters before and after the sign, parking was just fine.

The examples are endless and I won’t bore you with them here. What I do want to talk about is why I never had problems with parking signs in the US. And I’m beginning to think that the US was simply treating me like a fool. They assumed I wouldn’t be able to figure out complex signs (the same way they can’t figure out that you shouldn’t microwave your wet cat to dry it or drive with coffee in your lap). So they made the signs so simple, 8-year-olds could get them.

But you know what? I think I prefer the more intellectually stimulating Danish approach. Because when I come back to my car and there’s no ticket, I feel like a genius. The same way I felt when I passed my Danish test.

A few days ago, I saw an ad for the billionnaire & bimbo (pardon my language but it’s the best description I can come up with) reality show Erik og Anni goes to Hollywood show no less than seven times in just a couple hours. And with every new ad, I became more and more intrigued and irritated. Intrigued because I keep thinking there’s a good reason for this blatant grammatical disregard that hurts my ears. Irritated because, well, it hurts my ears.

Watching the show confirmed that Erik and Anni are, in fact, two people.

So why do they GOES and not GO to Hollywood together? I’ve written to Kanal 4 to find out and will keep you posted…

What do Shakespeare and big businesses have in common? ‘Tis the ability to use beautiful metaphors to capture the audience’s heart and mind, of course.

Check out this great article about using metaphors to make your business communications as irresistible as a ______ (fill in the blank with something you find irresistible). I loved the point about remembering that even if you’re speaking to one individual, you’re always communicating with two different “people”: the right brain and the left brain.

When our clients ask us to work on concepts for, say, new ad campaigns, we work hard to come up with something that captures the heart and the mind. How can you capture the heart with a new IT system, you ask? By appealing to the listener’s emotional side - particularly by creating a mental image they can relate to and be pleasantly surprised by.

We all have it in us. It’s just a matter of training that creative muscle - and knowing when to use it.

Getting back to Copenhagen from the US has been easier this time around. And it’s all thanks to the Danish stores. This year, instead of posting UDSALG signs in the departments trying to get rid of last year’s goods, they’ve gone for SALE. Jyllands-Posten remarked on it in yesterday’s paper, ironically warning the locals not to get confused by the signs.

Magasin looks just like the Macy’s in New York.

I imagine it’s helping to boost business with international customers.

But how do the Danes feel about this? Is it ok to go 100% Anglo? Or should they make an effort with bilingual signs?

Last week, our Party Planning Committee dished out a real gem of a Christmas party. And it all started with a tango lesson that taught us copy people a lot more than fancy footwork.

It taught us the importance of knowing how to communicate without words.

For the last dance, we had to move in complete silence. It wasn’t easy, but our moves (at least mine) improved dramatically. And it was even better with eyes closed. Imagine what a challenge that was for people whose jobs depend on language!

Our very cool instructor, Linus Aabye, made fun of us a bit to get us going. “You walk around and say ‘Did you feel that?’ or ‘Was that OK for you?’ and apologizing for every wrong step. But on the dance floor, in a competition, you can’t do that. If you trip up, you have to keep going, keep reading your partner’s signals.”

Admittedly, it was hard and a bit odd to suddenly be so close to our colleagues - yet not be allowed to say a word. I felt a bit rude, even - but then just gave into it and realized that the tango world is on to something with this silence. At work and at home, we constantly hear how important it is to use words to communicate. Not physical language - words. But maybe we’ve gone a bit extreme with all that talking. Maybe some things are best expressed without our voices.

Be that as it may, I’ve got to admit: in the Sing Star karaoke competition that followed the tango, it was our voices that ruled. What we had to give up in silent dance we gained right back with the mics in our hands.

I’ve stopped being surprised by how well Danes speak English. I’ve even stopped comparing them to my former Russian countrymen, who can hardly speak any. (It’s so bad, it was apparently impossible to cast a real Russian in the new mafia flick Eastern Promises. It required speaking both Russian (fluently) and English (with an accent) - and such an actor was nowhere to be found.)

But I digress. What DOES surprise me is that, according to Dansk Industri, every fourth Danish company has English as its operating language. That is truly astounding - and impressive. I get the feeling that the world has much to learn from Denmark, which manages to gracefully blend its strong traditions (we can especially see them now, at Christmas time) with such openness to foreign things. The philosophy seems to be: If it’s good for Denmark in general, then let’s do it - without following any archaic, arbitrary rules.

How the Danes feel about this trend is another question. What do YOU think?

About a week ago, I had BBC TV on in the background as I was getting ready for work. From my bedroom, I heard a woman’s concerned, energetic voice say something like, ”In Germany, things aren’t looking too good – and it’s not clear what will happen over the next few days.”

The phrase has stuck with me. Not because it’s particularly clever or exciting, but because it reminded me of something I typically encounter when I try to understand Danish. Not speak it, because when I (try to) speak it, I generally know what I’m talking about. But understand it, because then, I often have no idea what we’re talking about – which leads to some pretty entertaining misinterpretations.

When you’re learning a new language and have a half-baked vocabulary, context is everything. If I know the discussion is about cars, I can follow. If not, I can just as well think that ”speed”, ”comfort” and ”prices” are still referring to the previous conversation about Søren’s cruise on the Rhine. And it can be a good 5-10 minutes before I find out that I’m on the entirely wrong track.

So what was the BBC anchor talking about? The weather? Or a national strike? It would take a bit more time in front of the TV to figure it out – and I just didn’t have that time.

The same goes for all communication. I often encounter brochures and web texts that go on and on about saving you time and money, or speeding up operations, or enhancing employee morale – you get the picture. This goes on for paragraphs. And I sit there, waiting for the punchline: ”We make remote-controlled robots” or ”We specialize in business to business advertising.”

Sometimes, companies forget the importance of context. They know who they are, so they assume others do too. But without an anchor point, you just can’t expect audiences to guess your message correctly – so it’s best to just set them straight right from the start with something like, “And now, back to Germany, where the strikers don’t seem to be stopping any time soon…”

Have you ever let your imagination run in the wrong direction because of a lack of context? I’d love to hear about it.

For years, I’ve been a devoted reader of DailyCandy - a very snappy, well-written (and free) email service that infuses my often dull email inbox with a daily dose of trends, news, and deals for big cities (with editions dedicated to Boston, New York, Washington DC, London and many others - and versions focused on travel and kids).

I love DailyCandy. From weekend activity suggestions to the latest fashion trends to the invention of new words, it never ceases to entertain and enlighten. So imagine my excitement last week when my favorite trend-spotter spotted Copenhagen!

In Denmark’s the Spot, Copenhagen is all charm, style, and activity that makes you come back for more.

Sometimes, after spending the majority of our time on practical or work-related matters that don’t leave much time for sitting back and enjoying, it’s good to be reminded that we live in “Copenhagen — where dreamy bohemian meets cutting-edge modernism.”