Alabama mom claims she was banned from using unique baby name that’s ‘against standards’
A mother was shocked to when told that she could not give her newborn daughter the name she wanted to.
Different types of names are banned in different parts of the world separate reasons. For example, the common British name Linda is supposedly banned in Saudi Arabia because it breaks from 'social traditions' and is too westernized.
Meanwhile, had Blue Ivy – who made her debut at the Met Gala last month at the age of 14 – been born in Italy, then Beyoncé and Jay-Z may have faced issued as the moniker 'Blu' is banned. This is because of a 2000 presidential decree ruled that 'the name given to a child must correspond to their sex', per Heart.
There's also certain rules in the state of Alabama that this mom wasn't aware of, resulting in a nurse telling her she couldn't name her newborn baby what she wanted to.
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The mother took to Reddit to share her experience.
"I've run into something weird and I'm honestly not sure what to do," her post began.
"My baby girl was born last week here in Alabama, and we picked out a unique name that means a lot to us: Xfrgolszzzxy (we say it like Zurf-golz-ee).
"I know it's different and that was the whole point. I didn't grow up with much and always felt like people looked down on me because of where I'm from and the kind of name I had."
She added: "I wanted something special for my daughter... also my dad was a surfer, so wanted to include that in her name."
But the mom hit a bump in the road when filling out the newborn's hopsital paperwork and birth certificate.
She was told: "I'm sorry but names can't start with an X followed by a consonant. That's not allowed in Alabama."
When the mom asked why this was the case, the nurse 'just pointed at this big binder and mumbled something about naming standards'.
The mom proceeded to argue that she didn't understand the issue as the quirky moniker she'd chosen contained only standard English letters, per state legislation.
However, it may have been the case that the name Xfrgolszzzxy was a problem for the hospital's software system requirements. In this case, it appears as if the system would have rejected names beginning with X that are followed by a consonant.
The woman's reddit post went on: "I tried calling the county office later that week and basically got the same thing. They said our name didn't 'meet system requirements' but couldn't say why exactly."
Ultimately she was told that she'd have to pick a different name, or leave the birth certificate blank and go to court to 'petition' for it.
"I don't have the money or time to fight the state just to name my own kid," the aggrieved mother concluded her post.
Niamh Shackleton