A mother from Powys, Wales, has been banned by the Court of Appeal from naming her baby daughter Cyanide, after the poison used by Adolf Hitler. The woman had also chosen the name Preacher for the girl's twin brother, arguing she had a human right to name her own children.
The mother claimed Cyanide was a 'lovely, pretty name' with positive connotations because it was taken by Hitler. Hitler ingested cyanide in April 1945 before shooting himself. However, Lady Justice King ruled that naming a little girl after a 'notorious poison' was simply unacceptable.
The court was told the mother had a history of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse. The twins, along with the woman's other children, have been taken from her care. Powys council social workers took the case to court after learning of the chosen names.
In June, a judge issued an injunction preventing the mother from formally registering the twins' forenames. Lawyers appealed, claiming a violation of her right to respect for family life, but the Court of Appeal upheld the ban.
Lady Justice King said there was nothing seriously objectionable about the name Preacher, but ruled both twins' names should be chosen by their older half-siblings. She noted that 'even allowing for changes in taste, fashion and developing individual perception', Cyanide was a very odd name for a baby girl.
The mother had argued that Cyanide was linked with flowers and plants and was 'responsible for killing Hitler and Goebbels and I consider that this was a good thing'. Lady Justice King said courts would intervene to prevent a parent naming a child 'in only the most extreme cases'.
