“Court Blocks Couple’s Bid to Name Baby After Ancient Egyptian Ruler”

Honoring Ancient History

Cata­ri­na and Danil­lo Prí­mo­la had planned to name their new­born son Piyé, pay­ing homage to the first black Egypt­ian pharaoh who had ruled Egypt for 30 years and helped in found­ing the 25th dynasty. 

The cou­ple believed it would be a “pow­er­ful way to give a new nar­ra­tive to the his­to­ry of black people.”

Court’s Concerns Over Bullying

How­ev­er, the Court of Jus­tice in the Brazil­ian state of Minas Gerais and reg­istry office ruled that Piyé’s pro­nun­ci­a­tion is too sim­i­lar to plié – a Por­tuguese word for a bal­let dance step.

The court claimed the par­ents would not be per­mit­ted to “reg­is­ter first names that could expose their bear­ers to ridicule” and that the name could cause “future embar­rass­ment to the child.”

Couple’s Fight for the Name

The Prí­mo­las argued that the court’s deci­sion was mis­guid­ed, with Danil­lo stat­ing, “We know that bul­ly­ing can­not be com­bat­ed by pro­hibit­ing it, nor can it be com­bat­ed by oppres­sion. Bul­ly­ing can be com­bat­ed by study­ing and work­ing on the igno­rance of soci­ety as a whole.”

Precedents for Blocking Baby Names

This is not the first time a court has stepped in to block par­ents from choos­ing cer­tain names for their children. 

In 2013, a judge in Ten­nessee ordered a baby’s name to be changed from Mes­si­ah to Mar­tin, cit­ing reli­gious con­cerns. Sim­i­lar­ly, courts in France have reject­ed names like Nutel­la and Prince William, believ­ing they could lead to the chil­dren being mocked.

Overturning the Ruling

For­tu­nate­ly, the court’s deci­sion to ban the name Piyé was reversed on Fri­day, allow­ing the Prí­mo­las to pro­ceed with their cho­sen name for their child.

Challenging Societal Biases

The case high­lights the ongo­ing debate sur­round­ing the role of courts in reg­u­lat­ing baby names and the need to chal­lenge soci­etal bias­es and prej­u­dices that can lead to the bul­ly­ing of chil­dren with unique or uncon­ven­tion­al names. 

The Prí­mo­las’ fight to hon­or their cul­tur­al her­itage through their son’s name is a tes­ta­ment to their deter­mi­na­tion to reshape the narrative.