Six-Year-Old Child’s Disneyland Trip “Absolutely Devastated” by ‘Game of Thrones’ Mix-up

A six-year-old girl in the United Kingdom had a Disneyland vacation taken away from her because of a bizarre connection to the hit HBO series Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones was a TV fantasy drama on HBO, adapted from the Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R.R. Martin. The show, originally pitched to the premium cable channel as “The Sopranos in Middle-Earth,” was astonishingly popular, to the point that HBO has been trying to revive interest in the IP with more and more spinoff series over the years.

It also made stars of many of its ensemble cast, including Jason Momoa, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, and Emilia Clarke; for the record, three out of those four have starred in Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, which shows just how visible it made them. Game of Thrones also made cultural staples of many of the actual characters, in particular, Daenerys Targaryen, played by Clarke, was lauded as a feminist icon for a period of time.

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That led to the 2010s trend of naming female children “Khaleesi,” a title meaning “queen” used by Daenerys in the show. Since 2014, it has been one of the thousand most popular girl child names in the United States; in 2018, it peaked at #550, and, to this day, around 100 children a year are officially named Khaleesi.

According to the BBC, that seems to have had an unfortunate and unexpected effect on one child in the U.K. A Wiltshire woman, only identified as Lucy, reportedly made plans for her and her six-year-old daughter Khaleesi to take their first vacation together and visit Disneyland Paris, but the HM Passport Office refused the child’s application.

Lucy said her “dream vacation” to Disneyland was ruined. According to her, “I was absolutely devastated. We were so looking forward to our first holiday together…But then I had a letter come through from the Passport Office saying her name is trademarked by Warner Brothers. It was the first I’ve heard of such a thing—I was astonished.”

Apparently, the HM Passport Office required Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO’s parent company, to give written consent. Lucy continued, “That information was sent to the Passport Office, who said I would need a letter from Warner Brothers to confirm my daughter is able to use that name.”

While individual names can be trademarked in both the United Kingdom and the United States, it is typically the case that people may choose to name their children (or change their own names) to trademarked words as long as they do not intend to profit or wilfully mislead people about it.

The HM Passport Office website does not appear to have any explicit warning that an individual with a name that might be trademarked by a business cannot be issued a passport without written consent, for the record.

Lucy says, “I didn’t understand and felt frustrated. If she could get a birth certificate, would something not have been flagged up then? I never thought you could trademark a name.” She also says that the Passport Office contacted her, but only after she began posting on social media about it.

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Reportedly, the Passport Office apologized and stated that the regulations regarding the name Khaleesi did not apply to children who had been named a trademarked world, although they curiously still do to adults who have changed their names. A spokesperson for the department said, “We can confirm the application is being processed and apologize to the family for the delay.”

However, Lucy still believes that other, less vocal people are probably still running into the same issue. She says, “I am hoping the passport will be issued soon and was promised that they would call back in a few days to see if it had progressed. I think there might be other people in this situation, that they may have had their passports declined recently because of something like this. Hopefully, they now know it can be resolved.”

Apparently, Lucy and Khaleesi are still planning on heading to Disneyland…but this time, they’re waiting to make any plans until they have passports in hand.

Have you ever had a weird issue interfere with Disneyland plans?