Mother banned from naming her baby “Cyanide”

The Court of Appeal recently stopped a Welsh mother from naming her twin girl “Cyanide” due to the emotional harm the child could suffer as a result.  The mother was also banned from naming the little girl’s twin brother “Preacher”.

At first instance the judge declared that the local authority where permitted to restrict the extent to which the mother exercised her parental responsibility in order to prevent her from registering the names and made an order preventing the mother from registering the names or referring to either of the children by those names.

The mother appealed the decision, and claimed the name had “positive connotations as the poison that ended the life of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader”.   The Court of Appeal ruled that it was an “extreme” case and naming the girl after a “notorious poison” was unacceptable.  Hearing the case, Lady Justice King was satisfied that the court had the power to restrict a parent from giving their child a specific name but said that such power should be exercised only in the most extreme cases, and only with the sanction of a High Court Judge.

The court was satisfied that the girl would be likely to suffer significant emotional harm if she were named “Cyanide” and that it was right to intervene in this case to protect the child from that risk.

The court also found that the twin boy being called “Preacher”, while not in itself likely to cause significant harm, would likely lead to questions being asked by the children as to how their names were decided, which could give rise to the girl learning of her mother’s chosen name for her, which would case her significant harm.  Lady Justice King in her judgment said: “She would not only learn that her mother has chosen to call her “Cyanide” but also to have to come to terms with the fact that she was to have been named after a notorious poison, whilst her twin brother was to be given the name of a respected member of society, “Preacher”.”

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