Collections of “strange” laws from all over the world are distributed on the Internet, in which the paradoxical ban from France is regularly found. We checked whether such a law actually exists.

The statement that in France it is impossible to give a pig a nickname in honor of the French emperor and commander appears in numerous collections along with others "strange", "stupid" And "ridiculous" laws. Moreover, the authors of many well-known media both in Russia and abroad talk about the ban. For example, this story is mentioned "RIA Novosti", "Parliamentary newspaper", The Sun, CNN, The Times, HuffPost, Business Insider, Daily Sabah and many others. An unusual French law made it into the movies - so, about it speaks character in Guy Ritchie's film The Gentlemen.

A common feature of many publications and collections that talk about this law is the absence of the date of its adoption. Some authors even say that the law has existed for three centuries, although Napoleon was not even born then. There are also quite general datings such as “goes back to the 19th century”, “was adopted during the First or Second Empire”, etc. It is suspicious that the authors do not accurately date such a well-known ban and do not provide references to the specific legislative act in which the corresponding norm is spelled out.

Historian Sophie Muffat also noticed this oddity and nevertheless decided to study the laws adopted during the time of Napoleon. Scientist researched numerous volumes with the rules in force during the First Empire, Napoleon's Consulate and even the Hundred Days - the result was disastrous. She could not find a law prohibiting naming a pig after the emperor. In a similar way, the search for court decisions that could sentence the owner of such an animal ended.

Some publications (and following them Internet users) associate such a ban with punishment for insulting the French president. The head of state in France has long been protected by a separate law against libel and rudeness, the wording of which implied a very broad application. However, this norm concerned exclusively the current national leader and was accepted only in 1881, 60 years after the death of Napoleon Bonaparte and eight years after the death of Emperor Napoleon III, so even in theory this law could not protect them. In 2013, the French Parliament completely canceled this ban as violating freedom of speech - now the president is protected by the same rules as other civil servants.

Probably, the appearance of numerous publications about the unusual French law is associated with fiction. In 1945, George Orwell published dystopian story "Animal Farm", one of the main characters of which is a boar named Napoleon. Although the vast majority of literary scholars see it contains an allusion to Stalin, in the first French translation the nickname was replaced with Caesar - so continued until 1981. It is possible that people who learned about this fact came to the conclusion that there was a corresponding legal prohibition.

The existence of the law under review is also refuted by French media reports. Thus, in 2014, the newspaper La Depeche wrote about the “internet superstar pig” named Napoleon. The 90-kilogram boar not only became the restaurant's mascot, but also gained several hundred followers on social networks. We were unable to find reports that Napoleon’s master was held accountable for insulting the French emperor.