WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP):
A judge expressed dismay about a New Zealand trend of giving children bizarre names, as he made a nine-year-old girl a ward of the court so her name could be changed from TalulaDoes The Hula From Hawaii.
Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt, in a ruling made public yesterday, cited a list of unfortunate names that he said were embarrassing or made children seem foolish among their peers.
Some names, including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, were blocked by registration officials, he said.
But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter, Midnight Chardonnay, "and tragically, Violence'', the judge said.
The names were mentioned in Murfitt's decision on a custody battle over the nine-year-old girl from the North Island town of Hawera, who was so embarrassed at the name her parents had given her TalulaDoes The Hula From Hawaii that she never told her closest friends what it was.
Feared being teased
She told people her name was 'K' because she feared being "mocked and teased", the girl's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.
"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgement which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name,'' Murfitt wrote. "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily.''
Murfitt ordered that the court take custody of her until the name could be formally changed, which has since occurred and the custody dispute settled, Family Court Manager Midge Shaw said yesterday.
The new name was not made public to protect the girl's privacy. The ruling was handed down in February, but only came to light yesterday when it was published in the New Zealand Law Reports.
Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages, said New Zealand law does not allow names that would cause offence to a reasonable person, that are 100 characters or more long, that include titles or military rank or that include punctuation marks or numerals.
