Tennessee judge won't let parents name their child "messiah".

[Bruno]

http://www.wbir.com/news/article/283997/2/Judge-orders-babys-name-be-changed-from-Messiah

A Newport mother is appealing a court's decision after a judge ordered her son's name be changed from "Messiah."

Jaleesa Martin and the father of Messiah could not agree on a last name, which is how they ended up at a child support hearing in Cocke County Chancery Court on Thursday.

That is when the first name came into question.

Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew serves the 4th Judicial District of Tenn. including the following counties: Cocke, Grainger, Jefferson, and Sevier.

The name change was part of Judge Ballew's case; however, the parents did not think the first name would be changed.

Judge Ballew ordered the 7-month-old's name be "Martin DeShawn McCullough." It includes both parent's last names but leaves out Messiah.

"The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ," Judge Ballew said.

According to Judge Ballew, it is the first time she has ordered a first name change. She said the decision is best for the child, especially while growing up in a county with a large Christian population.

"It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is," Judge Ballew said.

Basically, the judge changed the kid's name to protect him from the idiot mafia.

Or something.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

That makes me want to name my next dog Messiah.

[Pæs]

I understand name change on the grounds of "no, that's not going to go well for the kid" but "The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ" sounds like the real motivation there.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

That judge probably doesn't know that "Hay-soos" is actually "Jesus".
Somebody should tell him, just to make him turn all purple. 

[Pæs]

Messiah is a banned baby name in NZ, too.

You cannot name your baby "King" or "Justice" here, nor ""Mafia No Fear", "4Real" or "Anal". All of those actually attempted and rejected.

[Cain]

I'm glad to report that in the UK, while freedom is circumscribed in every other way, you can call your baby whatever you like, so long as it is not an "offensive" name.  The Genera Registry has refused to comment on exactly what is meant by this or how often it has been invoked, but the suggestion is that so long as you're not naming your baby "Lord Arsebiscut the Fucker", you should be OK.

Which is a relief to all the parents of our little Supermans, 4Reals and and Gandalfs.

[Junkenstein]

I'm glad to report that in the UK, while freedom is circumscribed in every other way, you can call your baby whatever you like, so long as it is not an "offensive" name.  The Genera Registry has refused to comment on exactly what is meant by this or how often it has been invoked, but the suggestion is that so long as you're not naming your baby "Lord Arsebiscut the Fucker", you should be OK.

Which is a relief to all the parents of our little Supermans, 4Reals and and Gandalfs.

True Story - I know a couple of people who work in Maternity wards.

There is a direct (and the numbers are anecdotally high enough to be worrying) correlation between naming trends and the latest releases by Disney. Also more recently, Pixar. Seriously. I've actually ended up meeting "Pocahontas" which was quite a surreal experience.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't get why anyone gives a flying fuck what people name their baby. Fucking hell, it's all a bunch of control-freak bullshit that's essentially based on colonialism. "Our names good; your names bad".

[Doktor Howl]

I don't get why anyone gives a flying fuck what people name their baby. Fucking hell, it's all a bunch of control-freak bullshit that's essentially based on colonialism. "Our names good; your names bad".

I don't think names should be banned, as a matter of principle.

But when someone names their kid "Gandalf" or "Messiah" or "Anal", I have to kind of wince, because the kid is gonna go through hell in middle school.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't get why anyone gives a flying fuck what people name their baby. Fucking hell, it's all a bunch of control-freak bullshit that's essentially based on colonialism. "Our names good; your names bad".

I don't think names should be banned, as a matter of principle.

But when someone names their kid "Gandalf" or "Messiah" or "Anal", I have to kind of wince, because the kid is gonna go through hell in middle school.

I guess it depends. "Anal", sure. "Gandalf" or "Messiah"? I guess possibly in particular demographics, but mostly when you look at the divergence from "traditional" European names over the last few decades I doubt kids would particularly take note.

Of course, I do live on the West Coast, but from looking at naming statistics, people seem to be getting more creative and less traditional everywhere. I mean, I have friends with kids in school with names like Galileo, Diogenes, Candle, Asher, etc. and they don't have any more trouble with their names than anyone else. Sam's been going by "Samwise" for years, kids don't even know that isn't a "traditional" name.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Messiah" doesn't really sound that different to me from all the other religious/royalty names that people give their kids, like "Regina" or the forty million "Mohammad"s.

[Doktor Howl]

I don't get why anyone gives a flying fuck what people name their baby. Fucking hell, it's all a bunch of control-freak bullshit that's essentially based on colonialism. "Our names good; your names bad".

I don't think names should be banned, as a matter of principle.

But when someone names their kid "Gandalf" or "Messiah" or "Anal", I have to kind of wince, because the kid is gonna go through hell in middle school.

I guess it depends. "Anal", sure. "Gandalf" or "Messiah"? I guess possibly in particular demographics, but mostly when you look at the divergence from "traditional" European names over the last few decades I doubt kids would particularly take note.

Of course, I do live on the West Coast, but from looking at naming statistics, people seem to be getting more creative and less traditional everywhere. I mean, I have friends with kids in school with names like Galileo, Diogenes, Candle, Asher, etc. and they don't have any more trouble with their names than anyone else. Sam's been going by "Samwise" for years, kids don't even know that isn't a "traditional" name.

This is reason #2 why I don't think names should be banned.  What I find wince-worthy might be fine to other people.

Reason #1, of course, is "don't tell me what to fucking do".

[Junkenstein]

I don't get why anyone gives a flying fuck what people name their baby. Fucking hell, it's all a bunch of control-freak bullshit that's essentially based on colonialism. "Our names good; your names bad".

I don't think names should be banned, as a matter of principle.

But when someone names their kid "Gandalf" or "Messiah" or "Anal", I have to kind of wince, because the kid is gonna go through hell in middle school.

This kind of works both ways.

Depending on the kid, environment, parents and everything else they'll either go through hell and come out hard or broken.

I'm not convinced that the school system is designed to do anything other than these things anyway.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The other thing is, how can kids even figure out what names are "unusual", when names are all over the place? How many Ophelias do you think Ophelia goes to school with? It just isn't the days of half the class being named "Jennifer" or "Mary" or "John", anymore. If there IS a John in the school, he's probably the only one, and with so many kids with the only one of their name in a school of 300-400 kids, kids have no way of knowing which unique name is more unusual than any other.

So they're forced to pick on each other for other reasons, which, of course, they do.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I'm really okay with Adolph Hitler and Aryan Nation's parents getting shit on for being awful and naming their kids that.