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Tenn. judge changes infant's name from 'Messiah'

Can you provide some back-up for that?

I'd be interested in seeing any laws regarding what you can or cannot name your children.
 
Can you provide some back-up for that?
Sure - juvenile and family court judges hold tremendous power in that they can invoke parens patriae when they believe that they need to step in and make a decision for a child who is incapable of doing so:

Parens Patriae
The power of the state to act as guardian for those who are unable to care for themselves, such as children or disabled individuals. For example, under this doctrine a judge may change custody, child support, or other rulings affecting a child's well-being, regardless of what the parents may have agreed to.
 
I'd be interested in seeing any laws regarding what you can or cannot name your children.
New Jersey Section 8:2-1.4
(a) The designation of a child's name including the surname is the right of the child's parent(s). The child may be given any chosen name(s) or surname, except that the State 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.

You'll be glad to hear that Alabama allows most anything (even obscenities like Crimson Tide), so long as it doesn't contain "numbers, periods, symbols, or non-English alphabetic characters":

AL 420-7-1-.04 Name of Child for Registration of Birth
(1) The parent(s) may give a child any name they wish for registration of birth. The surname of the child does not have to be the surname of either parent.
(2) The name entered on the birth certificate shall contain only English alphabetic characters, hyphens, and apostrophes. Other characters including numbers, periods, symbols, or non-English alphabetic characters may not be used.

Looking at the code in Tennessee, it appears that the magistrate had to give Messiah his father's last name as a matter of law.
 
New Jersey Section 8:2-1.4
(a) The designation of a child's name including the surname is the right of the child's parent(s). The child may be given any chosen name(s) or surname, except that the State 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.

You'll be glad to hear that Alabama allows most anything (even obscenities like Crimson Tide), so long as it doesn't contain "numbers, periods, symbols, or non-English alphabetic characters":

AL 420-7-1-.04 Name of Child for Registration of Birth
(1) The parent(s) may give a child any name they wish for registration of birth. The surname of the child does not have to be the surname of either parent.
(2) The name entered on the birth certificate shall contain only English alphabetic characters, hyphens, and apostrophes. Other characters including numbers, periods, symbols, or non-English alphabetic characters may not be used.

Looking at the code in Tennessee, it appears that the magistrate had to give Messiah his father's last name as a matter of law.


so which, if any, of these laws prevents a parent from naming their child "Messiah" and under what legal basis could this judge order the name changed?
 
New Jersey Section 8:2-1.4
(a) The designation of a child's name including the surname is the right of the child's parent(s). The child may be given any chosen name(s) or surname, except that the State 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.

You'll be glad to hear that Alabama allows most anything (even obscenities like Crimson Tide), so long as it doesn't contain "numbers, periods, symbols, or non-English alphabetic characters":

AL 420-7-1-.04 Name of Child for Registration of Birth
(1) The parent(s) may give a child any name they wish for registration of birth. The surname of the child does not have to be the surname of either parent.
(2) The name entered on the birth certificate shall contain only English alphabetic characters, hyphens, and apostrophes. Other characters including numbers, periods, symbols, or non-English alphabetic characters may not be used.

Looking at the code in Tennessee, it appears that the magistrate had to give Messiah his father's last name as a matter of law.

Interesting. I've never really thought of it before but it feels wrong to force people to accept as a non ethic name as their legal name simply because we wont accept Hanzi or Cyrllic characters on a birth certificate.
 
so which, if any, of these laws prevents a parent from naming their child "Messiah" and under what legal basis could this judge order the name changed?
A statute may not be required (see Parens Patriae, above) - if one existed, I'm pretty sure it could be challenged as/deemed unconstitutional. I don't know that Alabama's statute is Constitutional - what compelling state interest is there in not allowing me to name my child José or Amos Thomas the 3rd?
 
Gaius46 - I would imagine it is because the state's IT systems will not accept those characters as inputs.

BTW - Newport is right down the road from where I live. This judge's ruling is an embarrassment.
 
Gaius46 - I would imagine it is because the state's IT systems will not accept those characters as inputs.

BTW - Newport is right down the road from where I live. This judge's ruling is an embarrassment.

Guess then they need to get with the program and learn the wonders of Unicode.

Seriously you're probably right and given the glacial rate of technology change in most government bureaucracies it'll be this way for years. Unfortunate for folks who'd like to maintain some connection with their heritage and ethnic names.
 
I wonder, when the kid is older, if he will be happy or angry that the judge changed his name? I'm thinking happy. :lol:
 
I would change my last name

There's a small-time politician not too far from me whose last name is ****. His tv ads pronounce it as "Coke".

Sorry, dude, you ain't foolin' nobody. :lol:
 
I would change my last name

I would think about changing my name too. That must be an awful name to grow up with though. It's probably much worse when you're a kid and you can't change it.
 
I wonder, when the kid is older, if he will be happy or angry that the judge changed his name? I'm thinking happy. :lol:

I'm betting it will be back to Messiah before the kid is old enough to actually say it correctly, or at least write it.
 
Re: Tennessee Judge orders baby's name be changed from 'Messiah'

He wasn't a jew, he was a judean. And no, not really. All versions of Jesus in either language are ok as long as you take an interest in learning about the guy and what he did and what he taught people.

And if you must attribute 1 name that matters, it should be Iesvs, his latin given name, because that's how he died for our sins.

OhferCristssake.
 
I'm betting it will be back to Messiah before the kid is old enough to actually say it correctly, or at least write it.

Maybe. Poor kids have no control over who their parents are unfortunately. :lol:
 
Maybe. Poor kids have no control over who their parents are unfortunately. :lol:

Eh, that name really isn't that bad. There are much, much worse names. And if everyone were the same, with one of a set amount of names, it would be boring and confusing. Heck, one of the reasons I go by my full given name is because so many others with my name actually go by a nickname of it. (I've actually had a few people get upset because I didn't want to go by a shortened version since my first name has 4 syllables.)
 
Eh, that name really isn't that bad. There are much, much worse names. And if everyone were the same, with one of a set amount of names, it would be boring and confusing. Heck, one of the reasons I go by my full given name is because so many others with my name actually go by a nickname of it. (I've actually had a few people get upset because I didn't want to go by a shortened version since my first name has 4 syllables.)

I would hate if that was my name. The kids are going to call him/her (?) Messy. :lol:

So many others go by Chris too, male and female. I still like my name though.
 
I would hate if that was my name. The kids are going to call him/her (?) Messy. :lol:

So many others go by Chris too, male and female. I still like my name though.

My brother used to call me "Lizard Breath" but I still like my name. And they could call this kid "Fartin Martin" or "Martin the Martian" or "Farty Marty". Kids can make any name into an insult if they are creative enough.

There was an episode of Full House where Stephanie wanted to change her name because the kids started calling her "Step On Me" or something like that. Danny said she could change it but then what would happen if they started making fun of her new chosen name of Dawn. They could call her "Dawn-ald Duck" or start dancing around her singing the song from Bonanza (he actually demonstrated). That is why I loved that show. It actually addressed situations like this about names and teasing.

There is no real reason to believe that children are more likely to tease him with the name Messiah and than they are to tease him with the name Martin. In fact, the fact that the judge changed it is more likely to cause problems for him than him having that name to begin with.
 
Tenn. judge changes infant's name from 'Messiah'

Tenn. judge changes infant's name from 'Messiah'

Judges have always had the discretion not to change names to things that would offend others or are otherwise grossly inappropriate.

That's why Tom Jones can't change his name to N*gg*r Jones, Nazi Jones, Sonofab**** Jones, Adolf Hitler Was a Saint Jones, KillKillKiillDie Jones, and the like.
 
My brother used to call me "Lizard Breath" but I still like my name. And they could call this kid "Fartin Martin" or "Martin the Martian" or "Farty Marty". Kids can make any name into an insult if they are creative enough.

There was an episode of Full House where Stephanie wanted to change her name because the kids started calling her "Step On Me" or something like that. Danny said she could change it but then what would happen if they started making fun of her new chosen name of Dawn. They could call her "Dawn-ald Duck" or start dancing around her singing the song from Bonanza (he actually demonstrated). That is why I loved that show. It actually addressed situations like this about names and teasing.

There is no real reason to believe that children are more likely to tease him with the name Messiah and than they are to tease him with the name Martin. In fact, the fact that the judge changed it is more likely to cause problems for him than him having that name to begin with.

Although what you say is true, I don't know if I agree totally with that. Kids with really weird names are going to tend to be picked on more than your kid with an average name, I would think, especially a name like "Messiah" which tends to cast certain qualities upon a person.
 
Judges have always had the discretion not to change names to things that would offend others or are otherwise grossly inappropriate.

That's why Tom Jones can't change his name to N*gg*r Jones, Nazi Jones, Sonofab**** Jones, Adolf Hitler Was a Saint Jones, KillKillKiillDie Jones, and the like.

Actually, no they haven't had that discretion. The name has to be shown to be either a violation of a law or actually something that could be offensive, not just inappropriate because of someone's beliefs. There are laws that prevent certain names due to profanity or using characters or numbers in the name, but the name Messiah does not actually break those rules. It is just a name.

If someone wanted to name their child "God", should someone else be allowed to change it? What about "Zeus", "Odin", "Aphrodite", "Shiva", or "Ra"? What about "Allah"? Although these may be offensive to some people, it isn't really insulting anyone. It is just a name.
 
Although what you say is true, I don't know if I agree totally with that. Kids with really weird names are going to tend to be picked on more than your kid with an average name, I would think, especially a name like "Messiah" which tends to cast certain qualities upon a person.

Except it isn't common in most areas to refer to Jesus as "the Messiah", especially not in a way where every child would even know about it. Children would just think it is the boy's name, with no other reference. The name "Jesus" is more likely to get teased than "Messiah".
 
Except it isn't common in most areas to refer to Jesus as "the Messiah", especially not in a way where every child would even know about it. Children would just think it is the boy's name, with no other reference. The name "Jesus" is more likely to get teased than "Messiah".

Sorry. :) I have to disagree. Jesus (or Hesus, as it is pronounced - not Jesus) is a very popular Hispanic name which most kids are familiar with. I guess you're right that it depends upon where you are though.
 
Actually, no they haven't had that discretion. The name has to be shown to be either a violation of a law or actually something that could be offensive, not just inappropriate because of someone's beliefs. There are laws that prevent certain names due to profanity or using characters or numbers in the name, but the name Messiah does not actually break those rules. It is just a name.

If someone wanted to name their child "God", should someone else be allowed to change it? What about "Zeus", "Odin", "Aphrodite", "Shiva", or "Ra"? What about "Allah"? Although these may be offensive to some people, it isn't really insulting anyone. It is just a name.

Are you sure you have the appropriate state statute in mind?

In any case, there is a lot of subjectivity inherent in determining whether or not a name is offensive.
 
Sorry. :) I have to disagree. Jesus (or Hesus, as it is pronounced - not Jesus) is a very popular Hispanic name which most kids are familiar with. I guess you're right that it depends upon where you are though.

That is my point, it would depend on where you are. I never met a Hispanic person throughout my school years. I was raised in backwoods NC. There were blacks and whites and even some different Asian students, but no Hispanic students. There could have been students who wrongly believed that Jesus, even as a Hispanic name, was referring to the Biblical reference and pronounce it as such.

I dated a guy named "Jafar" (pronounced "Joffer"). He was raised in Georgia. Can you imagine how kids pronounced his name, particularly being of the age of Aladdin? (And his last name, which I won't provide, made it worse.) Should he be forced to get a name change just because kids could think he was a Disney villain? That is my point.

There is no reason to believe truly that a name like "Messiah" is more likely to be teased than any other unusual name or any other name really just because it makes a biblical reference that most children wouldn't even connect. And those children that might connect it and have an issue with it are more of a worry to me than him getting teased by those ignorant children.
 
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