{"id":2245,"date":"2013-08-14T09:51:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T15:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=2245"},"modified":"2013-08-14T09:51:10","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T15:51:10","slug":"can-you-name-your-baby-messiah-apparently-not-in-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/08\/can-you-name-your-baby-messiah-apparently-not-in-tennessee.html","title":{"rendered":"Can You Name Your Baby Messiah? Apparently Not in Tennessee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From Slate<\/a> Today:<\/p>\n

\n

A magistrate judge in Newport, Tenn., made national headlines this weekend when she took it upon herself to\u00a0rename a 7-month old baby<\/a>, whose parents appeared before her at a child support hearing, to resolve a dispute over the child\u2019s surname. The baby\u2019s given name was \u201cMessiah DeShawn Martin.\u201d Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew spontaneously\u00a0changed it to \u201cMartin DeShawn McCullough\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(McCullough is the father\u2019s name), explaining that although there was no dispute about the child\u2019s first name before the court, \u201cThe word Messiah is a title and it\u2019s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

According to\u00a0the Social Security Administration<\/a>, \u201cMessiah\u201d was in the\u00a0top 400 baby names for 2012<\/a>. (Nearly 4,000 babies were named \u201cJesus\u201d; about 500 were named \u201cMohammed\u201d; and 29 were named \u201cChrist.\u201d) The\u00a0ACLU, pointing out that the judge cannot impose her religious faith on others<\/a>, has offered to assist the baby\u2019s mother, Jaleesa Martin, in an appeal of the judge\u2019s order.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Ballew ordered that the baby\u2019s birth certificate be changed because, as she explained, she was taking his Christian community into account and \u201cI thought out into the future,\u201d and the name \u201ccould put him at odds with a lot of people.\u201d Her decision seems nutty on its face, and will\u00a0no doubt be overturned<\/a>, but it\u2019s a reminder of how much freedom Americans truly enjoy when it comes to naming their children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Interestingly the article says that judges have often weighed in on baby names. Judges in New Zealand have stopped parents from naming twins \u201cFish\u201d and \u201cChips,\u201d as well as one baby originally named \u201cTula Does The Hula From Hawaii.\u201d Swedish officials nixed the names, \u201cMetallica,\u201d \u201cIKEA,\u201d and \u201cVeranda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should you be able to name your child anything you want? Should religious names like Messiah be off limits? Honestly, a parent naming their child Messiah doesn\u2019t offend me. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s very wise, but but we let lots of things that are unwise slide (I\u2019m thinking Big Macs and cigarettes for starters). \u201cJesus\u201d is a very common first and last name in Latin America, but it hasn\u2019t been popular with Americans of European descent. However, I don\u2019t ever remember it being a problem for people.<\/p>\n

The real question is probably one of legality. On those grounds, I think it is entirely possible that the Tennessee judge overstepped her bounds. However, I can see cases where it could be important to step in. More from Slate:<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a 2011 study of the law of parental naming rights in the United States<\/a>, University of California\u2013Davis law professor Carlton F.W. Larson found that under New Jersey law, parents have almost complete freedom to name their children as they see fit, although the \u201cState Registrar may reject a name that contains an obscenity, numerals, symbols, or a combination of letters, numerals, or symbols, or a name that is illegible.\u201d This study came after a New Jersey father attracted masses of unwanted media attention in 2008 when he got into afight with a local grocery store<\/a>\u00a0that refused to frost the birthday cake for his then-3-year-old son, Adolf Hitler Campbell. (Heath Campbell, the Nazi father, lost custody for several other reasons<\/a>, and not because his son was named \u201cAdolf Hitler Campbell\u201d and his daughters were named \u201cJoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell\u201d and \u201cHonszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell.\u201d)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Slate Today: A magistrate judge in Newport, Tenn., made national headlines this weekend when she took it upon herself to\u00a0rename a 7-month old baby, whose parents appeared before her at a child support hearing, to resolve a dispute over the child\u2019s surname. The baby\u2019s given name was \u201cMessiah DeShawn Martin.\u201d Child Support Magistrate Lu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[748,750,747,105,749],"class_list":["post-2245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hitler","tag-messiah","tag-names","tag-slate","tag-tennessee"],"yoast_head":"\nCan You Name Your Baby Messiah? 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