Judge Orders Baby’s Name Be Changed From ‘Messiah’
A judge in Tennessee has ruled that two parents must change their baby’s name from Messiah to Martin. The parents who went to court last week in a dispute over the child’s last name are outraged that the judge has ordered the child’s first name to be changed because “the word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” according to Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew.
The child’s mother Jaleesa Martin is outraged that this judge has ordered her to change her 7-month-old boy’s name on his birth certificate. The judge said the baby should be named Martin Deshawn McCullough which is a combination of both parents first and last names. The parents were only requesting the court to rule on what the child’s last name should be, not asking for some boundary crossing magistrate to tap dance into their child’s life and make a life altering decision for them without their consent.
And in typical family court fashion, the judge claims that her decision was based on the child’s “best interest“. She told WBIR ”I thought out into the future …the name could put him at odds with a lot of people.”
According to NPR the name Messiah is becoming pretty popular:
The name Messiah has steadily grown in popularity since 2005. As a check with the Social Security Administration’s database of baby names shows, the name was in the top 400 for 2012, after being ranked outside the top 1,000 names in 2004 and earlier years.According to the SSA, the surge in naming babies Messiah put it fourth on the list of the fastest-growing names in 2012 — just behind Jase.
This story is sickening. It saddens me to think that a judge would abuse her power and push her personal religion and beliefs onto someone just because she does not agree with what they named their child. There was no reason at all for the judge to order the child’s name to be changed from Messiah. If that’s the name that the parents wanted to give him, then that is the name that he should have. We don’t need a court system to tell us what we can and can not name our children. Martin said that she is appealing the decision, and will continue to call her son by his given name…Messiah.
Check out the video below.
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