Creativity Foiled Again

Some of you may remember the sad, but ultimately happy, story of a nine-year-old girl in New Zealand whose parents were, ahem, creative enough to name her Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. Unfortunately, it was not a joke. Well, the parents obviously were a joke, but I digress. The article I've linked here doesn't quite tell the story how I remember reading about it. Apparently, the parents were in court for an unrelated custody issue (neglect? divorce? who knows?), and when the judge heard the little girl's name, he presumably said something like, "No, I mean, please tell me her name." That was probably followed by, "Please check your hearing aid battery, Martha. I want you to tell me the little girl's name." He was subsequently so incensed at the "uniqueness" of the name that he ordered it changed immediately. The happy ending was that the girl no longer had to hide her real name.

Well... a two-year-old boy from Italy might not be so lucky, despite the top Appeals Court ruling that the child may not be named "Friday" (in Italian, "Venerdi"), as his parents insist that they will continue to use "Friday" when addressing him. I hear you, I hear you, Friday's not nearly as bad as poor Talula-etc, but I suspect he'll grow to hate it just as much. You see, these parents spent two years fighting their way up through the layers of the Italian legal system on this one. It's taken three court rulings for his parents to complete their quest. I suspect he's well-enough known now that when he starts school all the kids are gunna know exactly who he is. I've no idea how to say "hey aren't you that kid with the wacko parents who tried to name you 'Friday'?" in Italian, but I bet it's always followed with giggles and running as Friday tries to thump them one.

Maybe I've just led a sheltered existence, growing up in a family where none of my relations had bizarre names. No Moon Unit, Heavenly Hiraani Tigerlily, Apple, no Scout, Satchel or Suri. On the other hand, my son, while attending a Finnish language class, discovered there was another kid with the same name as he - so he decided to adopt another J name just for that class. Daughter, not to be outdone, decided that SHE had to have a new name too. Long story short, he now never uses the Finnish name, while daughter loved hers so much that she told people it was her name - most people now do not know her real name at all. This causes much confusion if I choose to refer to her as the name I put on her birth certificate thirteen years ago.

I'm just glad that she didn't adopt something like, "Gherkin-Cement". If you knew her, you would understand that it's not at all a far-fetched possibility.

~ Elisa