Mum Caroline and dad Arthur are being dragged into court in France as prosecutors want them to re-name their baby son due to a regionally-used accent added to his name

 Mum Caroline and dad Arthur are being dragged into court in France as prosecutors want them to re-name their baby son due to a regionally-used accent added to his name

The baby's name was not liked by authorities

The baby's name was not liked by authorities

A mum and dad have been called into court for the name they have given their baby boy after prosecutors claim it goes “against the interests of the child”.

Prosecutors are calling for the family court to order that the little boy is re-named after he was given a Breton name - used in the Brittany region of France - which contains a tilde accent above the N. The name - Fañch - a Brittany version of the more common Francis, uses the accent to indicate a nasal pronunciation of the N.

His parents Caroline and Arthur, a couple in their 30s living near the city of Angers, are set to defend themselves and claim the state is calling them bad parents. Speaking to the Ouest France newspaper, mum Caroline said: “They’re implying that we’re bad parents just because we have used a tilde. We’re not going to call him a different name from one day to the next.”

The mum added that she and her husband chose the name Fañch to reflect her roots in Brittany. She added that they were warned when registering the birth of Fañch that the name could be rejected but added: “We made the choice to keep it and to fight if necessary,” she added.

France’s national assembly passed a law on regional languages in 2021, which included the right to use accents like the tilde in the name Fañch, but that section of the legislation was later struck down by the constitutional court, along with provisions for immersive education in France’s minority languages.

Loïg Chesnais-Girard, the president of the Brittany region, has called for the law to be updated to allow the use of the name. “It’s time to stop this unforgivable social violence. It’s time that the richness of identities and regional languages is recognised in France and that each and everyone one of us can live in dignity. I give my total support to the family of little Fañch.”

Although naming children is generally down to their parents, rules as to what is allowed is often dictated by governments around the world. In the UK, people have not been banned from giving their children offensive names. According to MomJunction, the five which have been outlawed are Martian, Rogue, Monkey, Chow Tow (meaning 'Smelling Head'), and Akuma (which means devil). A mother from Wales was also once forbidden from naming her daughter Cyanide, after the poison which had killed Adolf Hitler.

In the US naming laws vary from state to state and while in general they are quite lax ,there are still some names that you aren't allowed to use for a child, having a numeral in your name is a definite no-no. These names are known to have been stopped by authorities: King, Queen, Jesus Christ, Santa Claus, Majesty, Adolf Hitler, Messiah, III (Roman numerals), @, 1069.

New Zealand also has had a growing list of banned names, including Chief Maximus and Sex Fruit as well as Justice, Lucifer, Royal, and Messiah. While in Sweden, the country has stopped any attempts to name children Superman, Metallica, and the impossible-to-pronounce ‘Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116.'

Other names which are banned across the world are:

Robocop (Mexico)

Linda (Saudi Arabia)

Snake (Malaysia)

Friday (Italy)

Islam (China)

Sarah (Morocco)

Osama bin Laden (Germany)

Devil (Japan)

Blue (Italy)

Circumcision (Mexico)

Quran (China)

Harriet (Iceland)

Cyanide (United Kingdom)

Monkey (Denmark)

Thor (Portugal)

007 (Malaysia)

Griezmann Mbappe (France)

Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii (New Zealand)

Bridge (Norway)

Nutella (France)

Wolf (Spain)

Tom (Portugal)

Camilla (Iceland)

Judas (Switzerland)

Duke (Australia)