www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Ridiculous name banned in Italy

While I think that it is good that Italy is still trying to be traditional, and that naming this child Gregorio for the feast day of St. Gregory, rather than Friday is a good thing--perhaps we should suggest to these parents that they name their son 'Paraskevas' for St. Paraskevi, whose name in Greek is literally 'Friday'!! Then that would make the magistrate happy (a traditional saint's name) and the couple happy (who are determined to name their son 'Friday'!!!) Lest you say, 'well the couple isn't Greek, Alice', I remind you that St. Paraskevi was born in Rome and that she is a second century, pre-schism saint!


'Ridiculous' name banned in Italy


Italian law forbids giving children names that can "embarrass"
Italy's top court has banned a couple from naming their son Venerdi (Friday), saying such a "ridiculous" name could expose the boy to mockery.
The Cassation Court said the name - taken from Daniel Defoe's famous novel Robinson Crusoe - was associated with "subservience and inferiority".
The judges also ordered that the boy be renamed Gregorio - after the saint's day on which he was born.
The parents had argued that they should be free to name him as they pleased.
The couple, known only as Mara O and Roberto G, had pointed out that Italian celebrities quite often gave their children bizarre names, citing Chanel and Oceano as examples.
They now say that they will continue to call the boy Friday, describing it as "nice", and that they might even call their next child Mercoledi (Wednesday).
Public debates
The Cassation Court upheld earlier rulings by lower courts that Friday was too reminiscent of the name of Robinson Crusoe's native servant in the classic shipwreck novel.
The verdict also triggered public debates across Italy on whether the judges were right to intervene.
Gian Ettore Gassani of the Italian Association of Matrimonial Lawyers backed the ruling.
Italian law mandated changes "when the child's name is likely to limit social interaction and create insecurity", Mr Gassani was quoted as saying by the Ansa news agency.
But Italian Journalist Alain Elkann said: "Friday seems a good name to me, it makes you think of Robinson Crusoe. I don't think it would create problems with the child's peers. It would have been different if they'd called him Friday the 13th."

www.bbcnews.com [bbcnews.com]

Oh, my. What a crazy world we live in!

Considering all the girls whose names start with Mc___, we truly live in ridiculous times indeed. (I'll let Fr. Serge and Neil explain that one.)

We live in a post-Christian era, even Christians don't give their children Christian names.

My children: Dominic Sean, Mia Nicole, Alys Chiara, and Justin Alexander all have Christian names.

Some that didn't make the cut were: Vladimir, Blase, Moses, Marcus, Kateri, Alexandra, and a few others. My wife, for some reason, has the line item veto.

Positively beautiful names...all of them!

God bless them, and may they live long!

Be well...(and good to see you around again),
Alice

Thanks Alice.



http://wiki.name.com/en/Alice

We need that law here with an addendum stating that one cannot put a La- in the front of a traditional name or replace reasonable spellings with 'z' 'y' or 'k' where once an 's' 'i' or 'c' had gone.

The woman who writes up our children's school directory commented that all our children had biblical/religious names and said it in such a way that she made it clear she saw us as oddballs. Our neighbor actually named his son Raiden because it "sounded good" and had the added perk of being a video game character's name. I was floored.

Here's a repost on this exact from my blog last week:

The children of our friends are given Christian names. Some opt for very traditional über-Catholic or Orthodox names while others make relatively vanilla choices. None of them has (yet?) chosen to do their child the disservice of naming him something secular or bizarre.

It is always a shock (or has been so when I have seen it) to families when they realize they can't have their child Parker, Becket, Katlyn, or some other shoe-brand sounding appellation baptized using that name. Sometimes they fall back on the middle-name or if converts they will often (in our church at least) pick something like Athanasius, Dionysius, or Maximos. When did this all start? Is it a result of the Moonbeams, Stars, and Sunnys of the flower power people? Is it a result of the fashionable surname repurposing I see so much of? I don't know. I'd love to read a study or magazine article on it.

As we await our newest addition, we circle possible girl names (the boy name has been chosen) as we find them in a baby name book and read past others (while occasionally rolling our eyes). There is a certain joy mixed with anxiety about what our family will say if we choose something too outlandish, but the greater part is the happiness that we receive in all the rituals associated with a child's name. The silver cup from my uncle with the name engraved. The announcements sent to family and friends. His churching, baptizing, and chrismation with our parish family. The icon of his saint placed next to that of his brothers and sisters. I could go on... but the excitement grows for me just as the sadness remains at the thought of what some parents deprive their child of in their choice of name.

I would really like to revolve around these names when I have children:

- Peter, Paul, Michael, John, Gabriel, Raphael, Brian, Mark, Matthew, Joseph, and Francis (boys).
- Theresa, Violet, Magdalene, Mary, Perpetua, Felicity, Grace, and Esther (girls).

However, given that we're all in a Byzantine state of mind, I am tempted with these names now:

- Athanasius, Emmanuel, Gregory, Alexander, Anthony, Theophan, Sotirios, Evagrios, Maximos (for boys)
- Not really sure about Byzantine names for girls. Crikey.