A French couple have been banned from naming their newborn baby Hades, the same name as the ancient Greek king of the underworld – the unseen one and commander of the realm of the dead.
Kristina Desgres and Rodrigo Velasquez from the French port city of Saint-Malo, Brittany, welcomed their son last September.
According to DailyMail, the parents say they innocently decided to give their child the same name as the Greek god of the underworld, the unseen one and commander of the realm of the dead.
And so Hades Velasquez Desgres was welcomed into the world, a name which they thought sounded ‘pretty’.
But after filing the required paperwork, the Saint-Malo public prosecutor told them that the name had been refused.
‘We chose this name simply because we thought it was pretty. ‘Hades Velasquez Desgres sounds good,’ Ms Desgres told local newspaper Le Pays Malouin.
She added that nobody made the connection between her baby’s name and the Greek god of the dead: ‘It didn’t shock anyone. On the contrary, people like it.’
Authorities in France can veto a name if it is not in the child’s interest and demand that parents change their baby’s name.
In Hades’ case, the public prosecutor decided that the negative connotation of the name as the god of the underworld who prevents the dead from leaving was inappropriate for a child.
However, the parents said they didn’t understand the decision as they haven’t given their son a name like Lucifer or Satan.
To protect their interest, the couple hired a lawyer in their fight to keep their baby’s name and have already identified other parents who had named their child Hades – 12 in 2020 – whose name choice was accepted without a problem.
Ms. Desgres and Mr. Velasquez even contacted the parents of the other children named Hades to prove that their babies weren’t bullied about their unusual first name.
The court decision on the case is expected on April 4.
