Civil registry prevents parents from naming their son Lucifer: the parents insist on the meaning of the Latin name and that the child is not bullied

Given that a child is being stigmatized for having an “inappropriate” name, justice in Argentina is preventing a couple from naming their son Lucifer.

Yes, Lucifer… as you read it. The parents say their son goes to kindergarten and they call him Lucifer without making him a target of bullying, Cadena 3 reports.

However, in the Civil Registry of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) and the judiciary “they refused to register it with that name, claiming that it affected the person’s dignity, decorum and social interaction.”

Why name the child Lucifer

According to Cadena 3, the argument put forward by the family is that the child can be named Lucifer because of its Latin meaning, which is “light bearer”.

As if to refute the statement, the meaning of the word in the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy has been thoroughly revised and this is: “Proud, angry and evil man”.

Rejection

“I rejected the registration of the name Lucifer because it refers to the devil,” Facundo Bargalló, general director of the civil registry of Buenos Aires, emphatically told La Nación.

He indicated that, “while denominations are not usually withheld, if the family so desires, that decision may be submitted to the court for review.”

The Argentine media published on May 12, 2023 that the parents had taken that path, explaining that the case was “settled in the first instance – which established the viability of the name – but, in addition, that verdict was appealed by the prosecutor of the case ”.

The controversy continued and was evaluated in “Hall J of the National Chamber of Appeals for Civil Affairs, which presided over Judges Beatriz Alicia Verón, Gabriela Mariel Scolarici and Maximiliano Luis Caia, who revoked the earlier judicial resolution and denied that Lucifer was a appropriate name would be for a child’s call”.

The nation resorted to Argentina’s Civil and Commercial Code, presenting what Article 63 says: “No more than three first names can be registered, surnames as first names, first names identical with the first names of living brothers; no extravagant pronouns.”

Bargalló, who was consulted in this regard, specified “how the adjective ‘extravagant’ is interpreted in fact.

The boundaries of a denomination have to do with not being aggressive or stigmatizing

Facundo Bargalló, general manager of the Civil Registry

So “extravagance does not refer to the mere unusual, rare, or infrequent, but refers to names that can cause rejection and lead to humiliation or ridicule that disturbs the person who wears it.”

Protect the rights of the minor

The intervention of the Ombudsman for Minors and Disabled Persons was important in this legal matter.

When mentioning a prosecutor’s profession, it was recalled “that the choice of name, in addition to giving individuality to the subject, is the ‘letter of introduction’ to society.”

Based on the name, a child can gain prominence or exclusion, and she stressed that there are many that, because of their rarity or negative connotation, can trigger a rejection response and thus hurt their wearer’s feelings, the defender said.

After hearing all the points, the Chamber “revoked the first instance decision, found that the name Lucifer is not appropriate to name a child and argued that its decision is based on the objective of protecting the minor’s rights in issue to protect.”

background in the world

In October 2015, in the same Argentina, it was learned that a civil registrar, from Santa Fe, allowed a child to be baptized as Lucifer. According to El Tiempo, the Civil Code stipulates that the choice of first and last name is a right and at the same time a duty.

In November 2022, Univisión reported that a Latina woman expressed her desire to be called Jesus Christ Lucifer Obama and went to court, “but the judge denied her request because of the effect it could have on the community.”

While La Voz de Galicia published in July 2020 that the parents of a baby born in Chesterfield, United Kingdom, exposed the problems that arose when they presented him to the law as Lucifer.

“A woman looked at us with a disgusted face,” the baby’s father told The Sun. “He told us he would never get a job that way and the teachers wouldn’t want to teach him,” added Daniel Sheldon, along with Mandy, his partner.

The quoted media reported that “finally, without much persuasion, they were allowed to register the baby with that name”.