The family affairs judge of the Saint-Malo court (Ille-et-Vilaine) decided on Friday April 14 that a child born in September 2022 could keep the first name Hades, which his parents had given him. When Rodrigo V. and Kristina D. came to declare the birth of their son, the civil registrar raised his eyebrows. He doubted that the name given in Greek mythology to the God of the underworld, son of Cronos and Rhea, and master of the underground kingdom and the empire of the dead, could suitably accompany the newborn throughout his life.
He therefore relied on article 57 of the civil code, according to which when a first name appears “contrary to the interests of the child”the registrar on alert ” without delay “ the prosecutor. Considering in turn that this first name would be difficult to bear, he then seized the family affairs judge and requested its deletion. At the March 3 hearing, Rodrigo V. and Kristina D. had simply explained that they were unaware of this mythological reference.
“Good faith” of the parents
If they had chosen Hades, they said, it was because he “sounded nice and sweet” and was pronounced the same in French and Spanish, the paternal language of the father, who is Colombian. Their lawyer, Mr.e Pierre Stichelbaut, had also argued that this first name is or has been worn by more than sixty people since 1900 and that it was attributed without arousing any reservations from the civil registrars of Dijon in 2008, from Saintes in 2011, Lille in 2019, Epinal and Lillebonne in 2021.
In her judgment, the family court judge first recalls that, according to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights“the first name, as a means of identification within the family and society, concerns private and family life and is an intimate and affective choice of the parents, entering into the private sphere of the latter” and “State interference in this sphere can only be justified for serious reasons”.
reminding ” good faith “ parents, she notes that this first name “does not present any ridiculous, pejorative or complex sounding and the risk of mockery is not further established”. “The only mythological reference is not enough to establish that the name Hades would be contrary to the best interests of the child”, concludes the judge to dismiss the prosecution. Unless appealed by the prosecution, the Public Treasury will have to reimburse Rodrigo V. and Kristina D. for the legal costs they incurred. And Hades can quietly learn to babble his first name, with the agreement of Themis, the goddess of justice.