Why do some countries make parents have their child’s name accepted by their government?

Planning to name your next child for your favorite color, your favorite place, your first car? Parents in some countries, including Argentina, China, Denmark, Germany, Iceland and Japan, don’t have that option. They must choose a baby name deemed acceptable by their government. Some countries specify acceptable spelling as well. For the most part, such regulations exist to protect children from being saddled with a name that could embarrass them or cause offense to others.

Trivia question: Which Taylor had a lead role in the “Twilight Saga” films?

A) Taylor Hawkins

B) Taylor Lautner

C) Taylor Schilling

D) Taylor Swift

You could work your entire career before earning a Nobel Prize, or you could find a less labor-intensive way to acquire one. The 1962 medals awarded to Francis Crick and James Watson for their work on DNA and the one given to economist Simon Kuznets in 1971 are among the 20 or so that have been sold to buyers at auction. American physicist Ernest O. Lawrence’s medal for his invention of the cyclotron was stolen in 2007 and later recovered, but the medal awarded to Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore was stolen in 2004 and its whereabouts remain a mystery.

Szczerbiec, “the jagged sword,” is the oldest object in the crown jewels of Poland. It probably was made around 1250 for a duke known as Boleslaw the Pious. He passed it down to his daughter Jadwiga. She married the future king of Poland, Wladyslaw the Elbow-High (obviously not a tall man), who used Szczerbiec at his coronation ceremony. Over the centuries, it has been stolen, recovered, claimed by foreign powers and sold to private collectors on a route that took it to Russia, France, England and Canada before its safe return to Wawel Castle in Krakow.

Redditch, England, calls itself the world’s needle-making capital, with a heritage of manufacturing needles for sewing that dates back at least to the 1600s. Needle making was a treacherous occupation for workers, who could become fatally ill from breathing in the fine metal dust produced by the sharpening process. Nevertheless, by the 19th century, thousands of people in and around Red- ditch were employed making needles, most by the firm of Henry Milward & Sons, which also did a brisk business in fish hooks.

Wonder Woman was the creation of William Moulton Marston, who also devised the polygraph, aka the lie detector. (No wonder her arsenal includes the Lasso of Truth!) She turns 75 this year and the U.S. Postal Service is issuing four new commemorative stamps in her honor. It’s the second time she’s been featured on U.S. postage stamps. The first was in 2006.

Each year, more than 600 million (possibly more than 1 billion) birds in North America die by flying into glass windows. Reflections off closed windows in daytime, and interior and exterior lighting at night, can make clear glass windows undetectable to birds in flight. Only habitat loss and cats are responsible for more bird deaths per year.

Trivia answer: Taylor Lautner starred as Jacob in the “Twilight Saga” film series. TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of “Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts.” Contact her at triviabitsleslie@gmail.com.

Elman