Blue, Blue, my life is…not Blue!

Blue is a boy’s name. So there. And if you are a girl, tough: go pick another name or the courts will do it for you!

That is the rather depressing news emerging from a Tribunal in Milano this week.

Hippy

Luca & Vittoria: parents of Blu, forced to change their daughter’s name by order of a Milano Tribunal

Vittoria and Luca are not conventional parents. A little on the hippy side, if truth be told. Interviewed by the local rag, Vittoria explained: “I met Luca three years ago. The very first day he told me he wanted to call his daughter Blu (“Blue”). I chose that because Blue is the color of the fifth chakra connected to the throat, and expressiveness, and symbolises harmony and balance. Blue is the colour of the infinite. For Luca, Blu stands for Beautiful Luminous Unique”.

Happy

Quite. When they had a chance, they swapped Milano for a small mountain village, with a (blue) sea view, and a clear (blue) sky shining over their heads. (You get the picture?)

And when a child came along, about 18 months back – a daughter, no less – they decided to call her Blu. Perfection beckoned or, as the parents put it: “Blue and beyond measure.

“The name is not just a name but a character”.

And so they lived happy ever after.

Stroppy

Or at least they would have done, were it not for the pesky Public Prosecutor in Milano which called them to task yesterday, demanding to know why they had given their daughter a boy’s name. Because back in 2000, a Presidential decree was passed requiring that a child’s name correspond to the child’s sex. And Blue is definitely not right!

As the Tribunal put it: “Given that it is a modern name linked to the English word Blue, that is the colour Blue, and which can not be considered unique attributable to a female person the birth certificate must be corrected, inserting another more distinctly female name that the parents may supply to the judges”.

And if the parents fail to comply? Then the local Tribunal – and judges – will pick a name for them and force the Registry Office to re-issue the child’s birth certificate in that name.

Sloppy

In vain, the parents pointed out the disruption that would be caused. The child is a year and a half old: has a passport and identity card in her name; and responds to family and friends calling her by her name: “Blu”.

They also argued that the judges view of what is and is not an acceptable girl’s name seemed to be based on an incomplete understanding of what’s been happening in the world of names lately. According to Data from Italian Statistical organisation ISTAT, there are currently around 7 children a year called Blu, in Italy – most of whom are girls. The name appears either in combination with other more trad girls’ names, such as Anna, Mia and Veronica, or as stand-alone. Beyoncé (not an Italian!) called her daughter Blue Ivy.

In vain the parents pointed out that times (and names) change. Once upon a time, “Celeste” (English equivalent: “Sky”) was very much a boy name. But over the years it has drifted to become almost wholly female. Boys are now more likely to be called “Celestino”. As for “Verde” (Green), a name already carried by two local girls: how will the system cope?

Crappy

Not good enough, though. The court is unpersuaded. It has called in the parents of another Blu girl, also local to Milano, also guilty, as far as they are concerned, of handing out sex inappropriate names.

Vittoria and Luca have two days to come up with a new, “correct” name for their daughter. According to Luca: “If we do not come up with an alternative by Thursday, the judge will decide our daughter’s name for us”.

Sad.. Not least because the court appears to have taken little account of the child’s interests. What IS the effect of coming home one day and just starting to call an 18-month-old by a different name.

It is unlikely to be good.