In a world where parents name their kids ridiculous things every day, we never thought we’d see the day when a name was so bad, it was ‘banned.’
But that’s exactly what happened to one couple, Dan and Mandy Sheldon from the UK, who were told that their son would face a lifetime of hardship were they to go ahead with it.
The registrar apparently told the new parents that their chosen name was ‘forbidden,’ but after a formal complaint, the local council agreed to let them register it.
When Dan and Mandy went to visit their local register office to name their tot, the registrar told them they couldn’t.
The name in question? Lucifer, aka another name for the devil.
The couple said they didn’t choose the name for its Satanic connotations as they’re not religious people, but rather they wanted a “nice, strong name,” after “struggling” to come up with one.
Speaking to The Sun, Dan said: “We were really excited to go and get him registered but the woman looked at us in utter disgust.”
“She told us he would never be able to get a job and that teachers wouldn’t want to teach him. I tried to explain that we are not religious people and Lucifer in Greek means ‘light-bringer’ and ‘morning’ but she wouldn’t listen.”
“She even told us that it was illegal to name a child that in New Zealand and that maybe we could name him something else but refer to him as Lucifer at home.”
The stunned parents were then told to leave the room while the official conferred with their superiors.
Eventually, she called them back in and agreed to go through with it, “through gritted teeth.”
“Honestly, we just thought it was a nice name . . . a unique one. We didn’t expect to get so much grief about it,” Dan said.
The council then released a statement that read: “We apologize if they were offended but it is the job of our registrars to advise in these matters as sometimes people are not aware of certain meanings or associations around certain names.”
People online were stunned by the Lucifer name controversy, and you bet that everyone had something to say about it.
“Kids are cruel. It’s better to protect children from unnecessary teasing if you can avoid it and in this scenario, you definitely can,” a concerned commenter stated.
Another said: “This is the height of selfishness, their desire for a ‘strong’ name will just lead the kid to be bullied their whole life.”
And a third echoed: “Of all the names in the world and you want one that’s similar to Satan? This is so awful and short-sighted.”
But on the other hand, some people defended the parent’s decision.
“Let them name their child whatever they want! It’s their kid, not yours,” one user passionately wrote.
Another said: “You shouldn’t be able to just ‘ban’ names, that’s against freedom of expression.”
“It’s parental choice, when the child is of age if they wanted to change their name, they will be able to,” read a different comment.
“I think that’s an amazing name. You people are just Karens. The name could have been 100 x worse, like look at what Elon Musk Named his son,” concluded someone else.