People have been left baffled by a mysterious new billboard saying it is “illegal to use a legal name”.

The advertisement has appeared in Gordon Hill, after a previous advertisement bearing the same slogan was seen near Cockfosters station.

It says: “You are not a legal name. The truth – it’s illegal to use a legal name.”

The board prompted confused comments by many members of the Enfield-based Love Your Doorstep community Facebook group.

Jo Johnson, who posted it on the group, wrote: “Please can someone explain this advert on the Gordon Hill billboard as it's hurting my head.”

Debbie Dean added: “It’s got cult undertones and whomever is putting this out has an awful lot of money for those billboards.”

Lorraine Thompson Farebrother said: “Far too obscure and sending out subliminal messages for the likes of little old me, who just want an easy life.”

Similar boards have appeared across the country this year, with the campaign behind the posters still clouded in mystery.

The website behind the posters claims your name, as registered on your birth certificate, actually belongs to the government, and using it is against copyright law.

Others on the Facebook page dismissed it as nonsense.

Jim Manlove wrote: "Using a name that is the copyright of another is not fraud, so even if the theory is correct, the interpretation of the law is flawed. Ignore."

Suzanne Linsey Mitellas said: "Someone with all that money to waste on stupid ads should have put it to better use."