Baby Names and the Law

When I started taking French in middle school, we were each required to pick a French name by which we'd be known in class, ostensibly so that we'd be more in tune with French culture. At that juncture, we were informed that in France, every child was required--for official purposes, at least--to have a name taken from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. This wasn't entirely true, I learned later: French parents were once thus constrained, but starting in 1966, a number of "foreign and mythical" names were introduced into the mix of accepted names. And in 1993, parents were given the right to name their children whatever they pleased, provided the name wasn't judged to be detrimental to the child's well-being.

This brings me to the article to which the title of this post links: this week, a judge in New Zealand made a nine-year-old girl a ward of the state so she could change her birth name, which was--Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. Interestingly, New Zealand authorities had stepped in previously to block other parents from naming their children Sex Fruit and Yeah Detroit, among other things, but allowed...Number 16 Bus Shelter.

A couple weeks ago, Chris Martin (of Coldplay & Gwyneth Paltrow fame, whose children are named Apple and Moses) claimed that "there’s nothing weird about calling your baby Chewbacca if that’s what you want to call your baby...A name is just a noise." That's true to a degree, I suppose, and it's also true that it's the prerogative of parents to pick a name they like for their child. But what if a name does have negative consequences for the child? Kids will find a way to tease other kids no matter what their names are--but aren't names like Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii and Number 16 Bus Shelter just asking for it? What do you think?

And maybe I'll get to babies with car names next time...