A Tenn. Judge Goes Too Far, Rules Parents Must Change Child’s Name from ‘Messiah’ to ‘Martin’

Talk about your judicial overreach—a judge in Tennessee actually changed a 7-month-old baby’s name from Messiah to Martin, claiming that the religious-inspired name was earned by one person and “that one person is Jesus Christ.”

Never mind that Messiah was No. 4 among the fastest-rising baby names in 2012, according to the Social Security Administration—no doubt aided by the fact that rapper T.I.’s 13-year-old son Messiah is parading across our television screens every week on the family show, “T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle.”

On so many different levels, this is craziness.

The name change was ordered last week by Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew, according to WBIR-TV. The boy’s parents were actually in court because they could not agree on the child’s last name. But Ballew got a flash of judicial inspiration when she heard the boy’s first name. She ordered the parents to change that, too.

“It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is,” Ballew said.

This eastern Tennessee judge declared that the baby was to be named Martin DeShawn McCullough, which includes both parents’ last name.

The boy’s mother, Jaleesa Martin, of Newport, said she will appeal the judge’s decision because she believes Messiah is unique and she liked how it sounded alongside the boy’s two siblings — Micah and Mason.

“Everybody believes what they want so I think I should be able to name my child what I want to name him, not someone else,” Martin said.

Wow.

For most black folks, there isn’t a subject touchier than unfortunate first names. We got kids named after liquor, after clothing lines—hell, a girl in my son’s high school was even named after punctuation. Yes, you read that correctly. Her name was La—ah. Pronunciation? La Dash ah. In other words, you sounded out that dash in the middle of her name.

No, I’m not making this up.

In my daughter’s elementary school, there was memorably an “Abcde,” pronounced Ab-sid-dee. Yes, the first five letters of the alphabet.

Where was Magistrate Ballew when these naming travesties were being perpetrated on some innocent child?

But there’s a long history of religious-based names, here and abroad. How many Latino males named Jesus are running around the U.S. and Latin America? And then there’s Jihad—kids named after religious holy war.

The point here is that it is a basic parental right to give your child his name, even if your choice might be one of the most unfortunate names ever bestowed upon a child, a choice that will ensure your kid will never get called in for the follow-up interview. That should be your right, as unpleasant as the result might be.

Many of us might shake our heads at Messiah, but that’s a matter more appropriately adjudicated in the family living room—not with the heavy hand of the judiciary.

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