Thursday, December 14, 2006
Annals of child abuse: Failing to name your child
When I was in law school, there was a woman in my class with a baby with no name. Occasionally, when her babysitter fell through, the young mother would beg the indulgence of her professors and bring the baby to class, and once the mother and the baby sat next to me and the baby stuck a banana in my ear, to the fleeting pleasure of all.
The mother did not name the baby, she said, because she wanted her child to pick his own name, and that really wouldn't be possible for a couple of years.
Then, when I was a young lawyer, a friend and colleague of mine with a fair number of children (at least a couple of whom are now readers of this blog) didn't get around to giving one of his babies a name for several months. He pointed out that under Illinois law, parents did not have to name their baby until they filed the birth certificate, and that the law required that to happen only within one year of birth. So the naming of his baby was not a particularly high priority.
Who knew that both parents were in violation of Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?
9 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Dec 14, 05:14:00 PM:
I'm sure the intention was to prevent the custom of removing the names of captives and giving them new ones when they were sold into slavery (see e.g. what happened to Kunta Kinte in Roots). But it seems they could have worded it better; "every child has the right to the name that they have been given," or some such thing.
BTW here's something I've always wondered: how does the state name orphan children that have been abandoned by there parents and whose identities are unknown?
By 
Charlottesvillain, at
Thu Dec 14, 05:20:00 PM:
Sometimes, waiting might be a good idea. I refer you to this post from the Tigerhawk Archives.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Thu Dec 14, 05:23:00 PM:
of course what I meant to do was post a link.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Thu Dec 14, 05:24:00 PM:
Unsuccessfully, apparently. (Sorry TH)
Was supposed to be this:
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2006/07/whats-in-name.html
Apparently I lack even rudimentary HTML skills.
By , at
Thu Dec 14, 06:23:00 PM:
Phrizz11 -- In the U.S., the baby is Baby Girl Smith if the birth mother's name is known, pending adoption and an amended birth certificate. In the relatively rare cases where the birth mother's name is unknown, I bet the baby is Baby Girl Doe until fostered or adopted (but that's just a guess) -- MCU
By Andrewdb, at
Thu Dec 14, 10:17:00 PM:
My Uncle (by marriage) felt that the name should reflect the personality of the kid, and that isn't always immediately apparent. This caused great constrantion when a son was sent abroad for his church mission and needed a passport - it turned out that the name he had been known by since about 6 months old was not the name on his birth cert.
A prompt legal name change resolved matters.
By , at
Fri Dec 15, 12:39:00 AM:
For years I thought my name was "Stop That" ;->
By Georg Felis, at
Fri Dec 15, 01:35:00 PM:
Here in Conservative Kansas, when people asked what we had named our new twin baby girls, I used to say, “We’re going to let them pick their own names when they grow up. Right now we call them One and Two.” This gave us a few seconds of fabulously funny stunned expressions until my wife would elbow me and properly introduce them. Out of four kids, I got to suggest one (middle) name that was accepted by her, but I still nickname them by number.
By , at
Sun Dec 17, 03:08:00 PM:
The RAINBOW FAMILY are the wackos and hippies who give their kids real weird names
