Saturday, July 26, 2008

Would you do this to your child?

This is from yesterday's LA Times:

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 today. 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.


Amazing. Of course, New Zealand isn't the only place this happens.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, I just can't believe the things people do.

storyteller said...

I heard about this on the news too and marveled at what some folks do. It’s a strange world we live in these days. What are these people thinking???
Hugs and blessings,

Pamela said...

hollywood has been the leader in odd names. But I don't think I've seen anything to match those. Who would name their kid violence.

Of course, it might be a pretty name if pronounced:
Vee Oh Lens Eh.

Daryl said...

Having an unusual name is not a good thing .. trust me .. as Daryl I have spent most of my life explaining I am not a man and my name had but one R ... usually I say we were too poor to afford more ..

:-Daryl

Mary Alice said...

What are these people smoking?

Attila the Mom said...

I just read this the other day and cringed.

Little Guy attended kindergarden with a lovely little girl named Felicia.

We went to a recital and in the program, her name was spelled "Phallicia".

She prolly really REALLY hates her parents about now. LOL

And years ago, Hubby was an executive with Wendy's. In one of his stores there was an employee named "Shanaa White". On paper it was "China White". Named after Mommy's favorite heroin, I guess.

Gak!

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