Couple banned from naming their baby daughter “Liam”
A French couple have been banned from naming their baby girl, Liam, after a judge determined she could get confused about her gender.
The unnamed parents, from Brittany, wanted to give their third child, born in November, the traditionally-male name.
However, French prosecutors stepped in arguing the name “would be likely to create a risk of gender confusion” and “therefore contrary to the interest of the child and could harm him in his social relations”, reported the Sun.
The prosecutor cited examples of famous Liams to support the argument, including singer Liam Gallagher and actor Liam Neeson.
The date of the trial hearing is yet to be announced, but the parents have requested a lawyer and reportedly postponed the date of their daughter’s baptism.
The French Civil Code states children can be given any name unless it is against the interest of the child.
A court has also previously ruled against the name Fañch, because it included the character ñ (called a tilde) in their baby’s name.
“The principle according to which babies’ names are chosen by their mothers and fathers must have limits when it comes to using a spelling which includes a character unrecognised by the French language,” the court ruled, according to the Guardian.
In 2015 a court in Valenciennes banned a couple from naming their daughter “Nutella”.
The judge decided that it wouldn’t be in the child’s best interest to be named after a chocolate spread.
“The name ‘Nutella’ given to the child is the trade name of a spread,” the court’s decision read, according to a translation.
“And it is contrary to the child’s interest to be wearing a name like that can only lead to teasing or disparaging thoughts (sic).”