Judge Rules Girl's Name Won't Do

Not that long ago, I came across an article about a court in Italy that ruled against parents who wanted to name their child "Friday". The court, in a strange display of religious fervence, rules that Friday was unlawful to name a child because in the Catholic religion, it is a day of bad luck, among other things. I felt that this was a little Nazi-ish on the side of the government and if you are adamant about strange names, this is not the party to go after. There are far worse names given to kids than this - and often by famous people. Clearly they get to psychologically damage their kids while the common person doesn't have that option.

This was posted on 12/18/2007 entitled "The Italian Government Has Gone Too Far".

This is a whole different animal... check this out:

"WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names here, and did something about it.

Just ask Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. He had her renamed. Judge Rob Murfitt made the 9-year-old girl a ward of the court so that her name could be changed, he said in a ruling made public Thursday. The girl was involved in a custody battle, he said. The new name was not made public to protect the girl's privacy.

"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name," he wrote. "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."

The girl had been so embarrassed at the name that she had never told her closest friends what it was. She told people to call her "K" instead, the girl's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.
In his ruling, Murfitt cited a list of the unfortunate names. Registration officials blocked some names, including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, he said. But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter "and tragically, Violence," he said.

New Zealand law does not allow names that would cause offense to a reasonable person, among other conditions, said Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Clarke said officials usually talked to parents who proposed unusual names to convince them about the potential for embarrassment."

I'm more than okay with a judge doing this, especially since the child was terribly embarrassed about her own name.