I’m truly sorry for the nine-year-old New Zealand girl who had to go to court to change her name.
What’s in a name? Quite a lot if you’re called Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.
That’s the unfortunate appellation a girl was given by her parents – but now a New Zealand judge has ordered that the nine-year-old, who is at the centre of a custody battle, should become a ward of court until she can choose a name she really likes.
The girl’s lawyer said she told people her name was ‘K’ because she feared being mocked and teased.
Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt said: ‘The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child’s parents have shown in choosing this name. It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily.’
Murfitt cited a list of unfortunate names that he said were embarrassing or made children seem foolish among their peers.
Some names, including Fish and Chips (twins), Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, were blocked by registration officials, he said.
But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter, Midnight Chardonnay, Benson and Hedges (twins) ‘and tragically, Violence,’ the judge said.
Murfitt ordered that the court take custody of the girl until the name could be formally changed, which has since occurred and the custody dispute settled, Family Court Manager Midge Shaw said Thursday.
What on earth were her parents thinking of? Didn’t they think that their icky idea for a name might cause their daughter embarrassment? And why did they resist any change to the extent that she had to go to court to overrule them?
Some people just aren’t fit to have kids . . .
Peter
I quite agree – anyone who would effectively hobble a child with pariah-status-inducing names should be publicly flogged, neutered, and have their children taken away. Unconscionable.
That fate should include parents who invent new spellings for ordinary names as well. When I was workin’ with elementary school kids, there must have been at least a half-dozen “unique” spellings of Elizabeth and Michael.
This is one of the few coherent arguments against recreational drug use that I have ever encountered.
One of my former co-workers named her sons Happy, Sunny, and Ollie. We decided those poor boys were going to grow up to be serial killers or clowns.
It is sad that something as naming a child can be considered a whim.
Just how much do you have to drink and dope to come up the such names?
I think the parents should be drug tested.The have a mental evaluation.For giving their children weird names.
I know a 15-year-old named, no kidding, Justin Casey Bluett (say it out loud….). His idiot parents planned that awful name, and when he takes a shotgun to ’em I’m gonna hire him the best lawyer I can: that’s GOTTA come under ‘justifiable’. (Or if he can hang on a couple more years, I promised him an 18th birthday present: I’ll pay for his name change.)
They care more about a moments amusement, than about their child’s future. Clearly not safe to raise children.