Are there laws governing what parents can name their children?

[Jodi D]

I don't think we have such laws -- yet. I worked as a unit secretary in a hospital one year. We had a patient named Chanda Lear. When I worked as an elementary school secretary, we had students named Gator Swamp Burton, Zarcon Maddox III, and Clamydia Washington -- no joke.

I read once that a little boy named God was unhappy in school because teachers refused to call him by that name. His parents sued three teachers and the school district. The judge ruled that the teachers could address the child by his last name and strongly advised that the parents change the child's name. I never heard if they took his advice.