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The name someone is given at birth is one of the least important things about them. As Shakespeare’s Juliet says: “What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.”

But exceptions make the rule. In a child custody hearing in New Plymouth, New Zealand, it materialised that the name of the nine-year-old girl in the case was “Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii”.

She was so ashamed of her name she told people instead to call her “K”. Very sensibly, the judge decided that the name the parents had given their daughter was "a form of abuse" and put her under the guardianship of the court in order that her name could be changed.

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In New Zealand, section 18 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 allows the Registrar to refuse registration if it might “cause offence to a reasonable person” or if it is unreasonably long. A name can also be refused if it resembles an official title or rank, so first names like “The Right Honourable Liam” or “Justice Judith” can’t be registered.

The judge ruled that the court was “profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name". He said: "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."

He noted that this case was part of a wider phenomenon and that family courts were becoming dismayed by the eccentricity of names that parents in recent times had given children. These included “Number 16 Bus Shelter” and, for twins, “Benson and Hedges” and “Fish and Chips”. Other names that had come to the attention of the courts were Satan, Hitler, Sex Fruit, and 4Real. The judge noted that the first task of parenthood was not a time “to be frivolous or to create a hurdle for their child’s future life”.

Other jurisdictions have experienced similar challenges. In 2004, Sara Leisten, of Gothenburg, Sweden was refused permission to call her son Superman (Staalman). She had chosen the name as he was born with one arm raised above his head, the position in which superman flies. Oddly, however, the Swedish registration office had permitted the names Tarzan and Batman.

In Zhengzhou, Henan province, China a father was refused permission to name his son “@” after the keyboard character. Permission was declined on the legal basis that all names must be capable of being translated into Mandarin.

The English authorities are more lax, especially where a person wants to rename himself. In 1995, Michael Howerd, a marketing consultant from Leeds, was charged £20 by his bank for a £10 overdraft excess. He got into a furious row with the bank and then went to a solicitor and changed his name by deed poll to Yorkshire Bank plc Are Fascist Bastards. He said, “I have 69p left in my account and I want the bank to return it by cheque in my full new name”.

Professor Gary Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University

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