Parents told 'teachers wouldn't teach' their child after giving him 'illegal' name

Choosing a baby name can be difficult - especially when a registry office tries to bar your plans.

That is what happened to Dan and Mandy Sheldon in 2020 who tried to call their child a pretty controversial name and came up against the iron fist of bureaucracy.

The name in question? Lucifer - another name for Satan.

Dan spoke to the Sun at the time about his experience with Derbyshire County Council. He said: “We were really excited to go and get him registered but the woman looked at us in utter disgust.

“She told us he would never be able to get a job, and that teachers wouldn’t want to teach him.

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“I tried to explain that we are not religious people, and Lucifer in Greek means ‘light-bringer’ and ‘morning’ but she wouldn’t listen.

“She even told us that it was illegal to name a child that in New Zealand and that maybe we could name him something else but refer to him as Lucifer at home.”

The parents were told to leave the room while the official checked if she was allowed to register their son with the name and while she acquiesced they weren't happy.

Dan added: “We were gobsmacked with her behaviour.

“Eventually she did it, but it was through gritted teeth.

“Honestly, we just thought it was a nice name . . . a unique one. We didn’t expect to get so much grief about it.”

Derbyshire County Council told the publication: “We apologise if they were offended but it is the job of our registrars to advise in these matters as sometimes people are not aware of certain meanings or associations around certain names.”

While the UK is usually chill about names, some countries have strict rules.

New Zealand added Lucifer to its list of forbidden names in 2013.

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