French authorities have refused a couple's choice of baby name because it includes a letter they do not consider to be French enough. 
A couple in Brittany, western France recently discovered exactly how stressful choosing your baby's name can be in France when they tried to register their newborn "Fañch", which is Breton for "François".
"Someone from the local authority's civil registration department called us to say that she could not register Fañch and we'd have to find another name," Jean-Christophe Bernard, the baby's father told a European radio station. "We chose this name nine months ago and now we're unhappy and angry that we've been told it's not possible to use it," Bernard continued.
And while the name is unusual, it isn't unheard of, with noteworthy bearers of the name including Breton authors Fañch Peru and Fañch Broudig.
And even though the letter "n" with a tilde (ñ) is more commonly associated with Spanish, it also exists in Breton, the traditional language of Brittany. But unfortunately for the couple in question, it doesn't feature on the government's official list of acceptable letters.
Parents in France have often fallen foul of the rules regarding baby names.
Up until 1993 parents in France had to choose a name for their baby from a long list of acceptable "prenoms" laid out by authorities. Most of these were and are Saints names.
But the list was scrapped under President François Mitterand and French parents were given the liberty to be a little bit more inventive.
However courts can still ban names if they decide it is against the child's best interests.
And since 1993 judges have been forced to step in on a number of occasions, including in 2006 when a Montpellier court wasn't happy about a child being named "Happy" - or "Joyeux" in French.
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have also been banned by the language police.
Cara - Tuesday
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Yeesh. Every country has its own share of ridiculousityness.
ReplyDeleteThank God they also appear to in some way to have banned Marine.
ReplyDeleteGosh, never heard of this. People in the U.S. name their children with words that aren't even names. Some are objects, concepts, descriptive words, etc. Many are made up.
ReplyDeleteBut c'est la vie. Only think about the child growing up with a name they may not like or are teased about. That's really the main thing about naming children.
I'm kind of shocked about French residents being given an "acceptable" list of names, mostly those of saints. What if people aren't Catholic? Or are creative? Or come from other countries or cultures?
My favorite absolute favorite about names is, and this is true I promise, the governor of Texas John Hogg named his identical twin daughters Ima and Ura. Then of course, there are people who named their child after a store like Tiffany, or saddle a poor little boy with the name Baron. This sorts of naming decisions I think are a form of child abuse.
ReplyDeleteWhen name discussions come up, I always think of the musician, Frank Zappa, who named two of his children Moon Unit and Dweezil.
ReplyDelete