NZ judge saves girl from bloody silly name

Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 24th July 2008 10:28 GMT

Free whitepaper – Migrating to the new Dell Management Console

An NZ judge has done the decent thing and made a nine-year-old girl a ward of court to allow her to ditch what must rate among the most preposterous names of all time - Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

The issue of the poor child's moniker surfaced during a custody hearing in New Plymouth back in February, the BBC reports. The victim of parental poor judgement had apparently refused to tell her chums her real name, and went simply by the initial "K".

Judge Rob Murfitt declared: "The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name. It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."

Accordingly, the court resolved the custody issue and allowed Talula to adopt a sensible title, which is not noted.

NZ's Registrar-General Brian Clarke explained to AP that the country "does not allow names that would cause offence or that are longer than 100 characters", and that officials "often tried to talk parents out of particularly unusual choices that could embarrass their offspring".

The Beeb cites several successful blocks, including Cinderella Beauty Blossom, Fat Boy, Fish and Chips (twins), Keenan Got Lucy, Sex Fruit, Stallion, Twisty Poi and Yeah Detroit.

However, the powers that be did, inexplicably, allow Benson and Hedges (also twins, naturally), Midnight Chardonnay, Number 16 Bus Shelter* and Violence.

The Talula ruling comes amid a worldwide attempted clampdown on bloody silly names, including Renault Megane, Metallica and Superman. ®