Father loses legal battle to choose his child’s name
Print Edition
A MAN who sued police after they refused to register the birth of his child because of her “unusual name” yesterday lost his case in court.
The Lixia District People’s Court in Jinan, capital of east China’s Shandong Province, ruled that Bei Yan Yun Yi — the father’s preferred name for his child — was not a legitimate choice.
Chinese names usually have two or three characters and include either the maternal or paternal family name.
Three public security bureau substations in Jinan refused to register the birth of Bei Yan Yun Yi — who is now 6 — as her name does not contain a surname element.
Her father Lu said the name was poetic: Bei (meaning north) was chosen because Shandong is in the north of China — though it’s officially classed as east China — Yan (wild goose) and Yun (cloud) are words frequently used in poetry, and Yi is a character from China’s first collection of poetry, the Shijing.
But the court dismissed his argument saying the name broke customs and ethics. Lu filed a lawsuit against Yanshan Police in December 2009, on the grounds that they had not fulfilled their legal obligation to register his daughter’s birth.
In March 2010, the Jinan court suspended the case, citing difficulties over which legal clause applied to it.
The Civil Law stipulates that citizens are entitled to decide, use and change their names according to regulations, as long as they do not “impair the public interest of society.”
A judicial interpretation of the law, passed last year, determined that the surnames of offspring may differ from their parents if they use the surnames of other relatives.
This interpretation enabled the case to reopen on Tuesday.
In 2009 parents in east China’s Jiangxi Province were ordered to rename their son after stipulating the English letter “C” as his given name.
Though Lu said he registered his daughter’s birth in another province, the Jinan court said it was invalid.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
