Who should decide what the baby is named?
What’s in a name? If the name is Friday, shame and ridicule, according to Italian judges who forbade a couple from naming their child like the character in “Robinson Crusoe.”
“They thought that it recalled the figure of a savage, thus creating a sense of inferiority and failing to guarantee the boy the necessary decorum,” the couple’s lawyer said. The couple are considering appealing the decision.
What do you think? Should the government of any nation be allowed to tell parents what they may or may not name their children? Mitzi….and just signing this reminded me that as a child I used to wish that I had a common name!!!!
December 19th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
How much more invasion of privacy will we as a people allow our governments? This is a private decision and should NOT be regulated by any government; it’s none of their business!
December 20th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I work with babies, and have seen some very odd and bad names. Giving people more rules to follow is a good idea. We in Michigan can’t get a personalized license plate until a group reviews it, yet you can stick a name on a child for life without a thought. You would not believe how cruel some parents are, truly! It is quite sad a child grows up with the name given by a parent intoxicated with drugs or alcohol, or a sick sense of humor.
That’s an interesting point Chris!..thanks so much! Mitzi
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I say name your child what you want and tell the government to get a life…theres more important worldly things to worry about then sittin around telling people what they can and can’t name thier kid….get a grip…..
December 27th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Government’s should have no say in what parents name their child. A child’s name is important in every family whether it holds a special meaning to the parents or if it’s a family name passed down. It’s non of the government’s business what parents name their children. What’s next? Will they want to dictate who you marry too?
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
In the end, it doesn’t really matter what you name a child or who decides it. The name they are suppose to have will come to them eventually.
My name is the perfect example of that and funny besides!
I was born. My parents named me Debra Marie and the birth certificate was issued. Six weeks later my mother changed it to Angela Athenia and my birth certificate was changed. So my whole life I went by Angela but it just never felt right to me. Like when someone would call me Angela, I would hesitate before answering, thinking “are they talking to me?”.
And like most children, as a kid, I even experimented with different names.
But life goes on and finally I stopped struggling with it. Then when I was 46, I decided to remarry. I went down to city hall to get our license and the clerk refused me. I had told her my name and given her my driver’s license and my birth certificate and she told me I had the wrong birth certificate.
I was a bit p-o’d to say the least and told her, I knew who I was. She laughed and said obviously I didn’t.
And she was absolutely right. My birth certificate said Angelin. All my life and as many times as I had looked at it and shown my birth certificate, no one had ever noticed the difference.
We had everyone in the clerk’s office rolling with laughter by the time I finally convinced her to issue the license.
But all of the sudden, for the first time in my life, my name felt right. It was only a two letter difference in spelling but it made all the difference to me.
So maybe we should give our children temporary names and then let them decide when the time is right.
Think about it…. Nearly every child I have ever known has gone through a stage when they want to change their name or question why they were given their name.
Could it be possible that our brains function that way because we know internally who we are suppose to be and are trying to bring out that identity?
Now that is a good story! I can relate to what you said, as a child I wanted to be called Suzie, just like my best friend! As a young woman I pretended that my name was Leslie…for when I went out to clubs with friends. Mitzi just doesn’t seem like a good met her at a bar name….as a DJ, I had bosses who wanted me to go by simpler, more common names….but I kept forgetting my name! Thanks for sharing your story with us, Mitzi
March 20th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I always wondered why my parents named me Pamela. It’s not a particularly bad name but sort of non-descript as when I worked as an exporter for Ziebart and would get orders addressed to Mr. Pamela . . . My Mom told me that her father who was from the Philippine Islands had a favorite sister named Tupela and he wanted me to have her name. The compromise was Pamela. Thanks Mom. Oh and by the way, the Government should stay out of our personal affairs including what we name our children - just look how well they have managed the country’s affairs. WOW!