Written by Don Byrd
A judicial magistrate in Newport, Tennessee has decided a couple’s proposed name for their child is just too religious for her taste. So she picked a name she liked instead. Jaleesa Martin was in front of Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew because she and her newborn’s father couldn’t agree on the child’s last name. But when Ballew saw the child’s first name was “Messiah,” she ordered it changed to Martin.
“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.
It was the first time she ordered a first name change, the judge said.
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“The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” the judge said.
Child support judges are often called upon to resolve parental disputes in accordance with the best interests of the child. Here, there was no dispute about the child’s first name, just a judge acting in accordance with her own religious sensibilities. It is surely not her place to make such decisions, let alone make it based on her religion.
I’ve never had the pleasure of naming a child, but I assume it is a very personal decision filled with meaning and significance. Maybe a name is based on tradition and continuity. Maybe it is a hope, or an effort to break with the past. People do make naming decisions I scratch my head over, even maybe religiously presumptuous ones. (Who can forget former Providence College basketball player God Shammgod?) But who am I to judge? Ms. Martin may view her young child as evidence of The Messiah. She may just want him to have the highest of high standards for a role model. She may, as she said, just like the way it sounds. Either way, should a judge’s beliefs about the title of Messiah in any way trump the name she chooses?
The child’s mother is appealing the decision.
