Has anyone seen this?

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7686564.stm


'Ridiculous' name banned in Italy

Italy's top court has banned a couple from naming their son Venerdi (Friday), saying such a "ridiculous" name could expose the boy to mockery.

The Cassation Court said the name - taken from Daniel Defoe's famous novel Robinson Crusoe - was associated with "subservience and inferiority".

The judges also ordered that the boy be renamed Gregorio - after the saint's day on which he was born.

The parents had argued that they should be free to name him as they pleased.

The couple, known only as Mara O and Roberto G, had pointed out that Italian celebrities quite often gave their children bizarre names, citing Chanel and Oceano as examples.

They now say that they will continue to call the boy Friday, describing it as "nice", and that they might even call their next child Mercoledi (Wednesday).

Public debates

The Cassation Court upheld earlier rulings by lower courts that Friday was too reminiscent of the name of Robinson Crusoe's native servant in the classic shipwreck novel.

The verdict also triggered public debates across Italy on whether the judges were right to intervene.

Gian Ettore Gassani of the Italian Association of Matrimonial Lawyers backed the ruling.

Italian law mandated changes "when the child's name is likely to limit social interaction and create insecurity", Mr Gassani was quoted as saying by the Ansa news agency.

But Italian Journalist Alain Elkann said: "Friday seems a good name to me, it makes you think of Robinson Crusoe. I don't think it would create problems with the child's peers. It would have been different if they'd called him Friday the 13th."

Comments

[chirpygirly.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

While I don't like Venerdi, I don't think it's so terrible that the courts were right to butt in. I also think the french version, Vendredi is not as unappealing.

I'm hesitant to say the law should step in and not allow certain names on children, but then to me that may be crossing the line, because the parents are the ones responsible for the child being here in the first place, and they're the ones who will be raising him/her. And frankly it's a slippery slope when it comes to stuff like that. Take away the freedom of a parent to name their child what they want, and what comes next.

But then when it comes to what I consider really ridiculous names, like Shitonya, then I'm thinking maybe the best compromise would be to tell parents they must delegate such names to middle name status. So that if they want they can call their child by that name, but at least the child would have the option of a more suitable first name to go by, and it's first names that most people see written out in full and address people by.

[ugottafriend.livejournal.com]

Friday was my cat's name when I was a kid.

I am with the previous poster...I think it's not a great name, but not so bad that the court should legally change it. There is so much worse out there, like the idiots in New Zealand who named their baby 4Real and then changed it to Superman. That's crossing the line BIGTIME.

[spartan-picnic.livejournal.com]

We have similar laws in Finland and I think it's great. There are still some stupid names given to children (mostly English names that half the people here can't pronounce properly) but at least we aren't naming kids Buckets or Dragons and such. I remember this one case that was on the news where a couple couldn't name their son Axl because x is not a part of the Finnish alphabet. I think it would have been troublesome for the boy when he started learning to write because his name would only have three letters when it sounds like it has a couple of more.

And I think Venerdi is as ridiculous name in Italy as Sunday Rose is in USA :>)

[krosp.livejournal.com]

I think there do need to be some lines drawn by the law (here in Australia I believe we're not allowed to use names with obscenities, political statements, symbols, stuff like that) but this seems pretty inoffensive and tame to me as far as unusual names go. But, I've never been to Italy so I have no idea what effect a name like Venerdi will have within that culture - perhaps this kind of action was called for there.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

I agree, as far as names go, Friday/Venerdi could go do a lot worse!

I wish the courts would/could haul in the asses of the ridiculous number of celebrities who name their kids idiotically!

[amspeck-myworld.livejournal.com]

One of my husband's cousin's is married to a Finnish woman and we talked about how they had such a hard time coming up with names for their two girls that would work and be pronounced similarly in English and Finnish (They named them Beatrice 'B' and Alexandra).

I dislike calendar names, but I dislike more that the court automatically gave the child another name.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

Considering that I really like the name Tuesday, I can't say anything against using days of the week on your kid.

[snailrevolution.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I kind of like Venerdi. ^^; Maybe not the best choice, but not so bad to call in the courts, surely?