We love the football team we support dearly, but not to the point where we'd legally change our names.

Sure, plenty of children have been named after sporting inspirations - Tyson Fury because of Mike Tyson, for example - but you wouldn't necessarily know without confirmation.

On the contrary, if your birth certificate read out 'Lincoln-City', then you can probably assume that the parents were Imps fans and feeling pretty merciless on the day.

Joking aside, though, there are some truly bizarre names out there and one Tottenham fan in Sweden has been determined to call himself, well - Tottenham.

David Lind from Kumla was part of a competition where people could change their names to their favourite football club in England and emerged as one of the three winners.

'Tottenham' name change?

As a result, he quickly sent off an application to his local Swedish authority to see whether his name could legally be altered to 'Tottenham.'

There are laws in certain countries which regulate names and while that's reserved to children in the most part, there are also rules in place for adults in Sweden.

Consequently, Skatteverket wrote back to him to inform that the application was denied and that the Spurs fan would have to continue life named 'David.'

Swedish authorities turn him down

“This is very sad,” the 39-year-old informed Nerikes Allehanda. “It looks as if you can be called pretty much everything in Sweden but not Tottenham.

"It is not any more natural to be called Newcastle, Arsenal, Liverpool or Guiseley.

“There are a lot of people with strange names in Sweden. There is even someone called Potato. Maybe someone at Skatteverket is an Arsenal fan?”

Now, while the situation might seem utterly bizarre to most us, Lind does have an argument when you consider some of the others names than be found in Sweden.

Wonder why he name-dropped Guiseley of all clubs? Well, just ask Jacob Guiseley Åhman-Dahlin, who changed his name after falling in love with the sixth-tier English side.

However, it seems as though Lind has fallen foul of some up to date legislation and spokesperson Hajrudin Alijagic explained the situation in the Swedish press.

“If someone is called Arsenal in Sweden they probably got that through before 2017," the Skatteverket employee clarified.

“In the law from 1982 you could be called pretty much anything and there are around 60 people in Sweden called ‘Bajen’ [the nickname for the Swedish club Hammarby].

“When we are faced with an application for a name we are not sure about we consult another institution and they ruled that Tottenham was not constructed in a way that was appropriate for a name in Sweden.”

Nevertheless, Lind is considering an appeal against the decision...