| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Judge: Girl's name, Talula Does The Hula, won't do |
| 2008-07-24 |
| I think there's an "idiots of the day" bit somewhere here. 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. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #6 JCash song here... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-07-24 17:17 |
| #5 Time for a chorus of Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue"? |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-07-24 14:49 |
| #4 There does seem to be a need to draw the line somewhere. You certainly shouldn't be able to name your kid Shithead Johnson. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-07-24 14:03 |
| #3 Reminds me of a joke where the punch line is: "Why do you ask, Two Dogs F*cking?" Someone will get it! 8-) |
| Posted by: Grease Dark Lord of the Algonquins9226 2008-07-24 14:00 |
| #2 In Germany the government has final word if a name is legit or not. I wonder if New Zealand or other places will eventually do so as well. We hear a lot about "it's for the children" but in this case a certain level of child cruelty probably does occur. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-07-24 12:53 |
| #1 I have always wondered when someone was going to do something about these names.Living in the islands in the early 70's, I remember the kids named by cigarette brands and one classmate of mine named, 3 Pounds, of course it was in our language, and then the triplets that were born w/ colors for names!! Yes, like Red, White and Blue! that was very hard for me to wonder, how this would effect these poor kids in the future when they have to get up to introduce themselves to friends or in class or anywhere! it's embarrassing of course. I felt for these kids very much. It was like the indians naming their kids odd names, but at the same time, they made sense. But to be named, " Skippy" like the dog food or the dog, or the peanut butter or to be named after a president even~ these kids have middle names after presidents. That's right they were born during the Bicentennial year, so these kids were named Red, White and Blue and their middle names were presidents names. So go figure~ where they live, and what their going thru~ |
| Posted by: DLR 2008-07-24 12:06 |