Following news that a Tennessee judge ordered the name change of a baby named "
Messiah," a family law professor tells
TIME magazine, the child support magistrate overstepped her boundaries.
"If this stood up in court, I would eat my hat," University of California, Berkeley family law professor Melissa Murray told the magazine.
Late last week, Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered that the 7-month-old's name be changed from Messiah to Marvin citing religion - "..it's a title that has only been earned by one person... Jesus Christ," also adding that the child's name would put him at odds with a lot of people.
And the child's parents had simply come to court to settle what his last name would be.
Jaleesa Martin, the child's mother, has said she would appeal the decision.
All that said, it turns out that last year,
more than 800 children born in America were named Messiah; nearly 4,000 were named Jesus; about 500 were named Mohammed; and 29 baby boys were named Christ, TIME reports citing the Social Security Administration.
The biggest hubbub about Ballew's step has all to do with its constitutionality. The judge made it clear her primary motivation was religious, Columbia University law professor Elizabeth Scott told TIME, and thus Ballew's decision violates the First Amendment.
Still that's not to say the government can't have any say in what parents name their kids. Depending on what state you live in, there may be some limitations,
TIME reports.
In
Texas, the magazine says,
Roman numerals are allowed for suffixes (e.g. Robert Lewis II), but Arabic ones (Rick Perry 3) are not.
In
Massachusetts,
The total number of characters in the first, middle and last names cannot exceed 40.
In
New Hampshire,
Punctuation marks, except for apostrophes and dashes, are prohibited.
In
New Jersey,
Most names are acceptable so long as it doesn't include any obscenity, numerals or symbols. But beyond that, a lot is up for grabs. [Back in 2009, a 3-year-old named Adolf Hitler Campbell made the news when a New Jersey bakery refused to decorate a cake ordered by his dad.]
Now compared with other countries, what naming restrictions some U.S. states have pale sharply, according to mental_floss magazine.
In
Germany, you have to be able to tell the gender of the child by first name and the name must not negatively affect the well-being of him or her. Also, naming your kid after objects or products is off limits.
Extra fact: The name you submit can either be accepted or rejected by the office of vital statistics. And if it's rejected, you can appeal the decision. Most likely, though, you'll have to think up another name. What's more, each name submission has a fee attached to it.
In
Sweden, the Naming law of 1982 was created to keep non-noble families from giving their children noble names. The law has changed a bit since then, however. These days, first names won't be approved if they are offensive "or can be supposed to cause discomfort for the one using it." Also, names "which for some obvious reason are not suitable as a first name" will not be considered.
Extra fact: One child's parents once submitted "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb111163" in protest of the Naming law. Naturally, it was rejected. Next up was "A," which also was rejected.
As humorous as their protest was, one hopes those parents took the rearing of their child more seriously.
It's been a month and you still haven't named me! Call me Alice and be done with it!
And surprise, surprise, Sweden will not accept your naming your child Ikea.
But are you naming your child in
Denmark? Parents get a list of about 7,000 pre-approved names to choose from. If your idea isn't on the list, you've got to get special permission from your local church and then the name is reviewed by government officials. Also, creative spellings of common names are rejected.
Find more on countries with interesting baby naming laws
here.
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