Brazilian court bans historic name of couple’s baby over fear of bullying: ‘Embarrassment in the future’

A Brazilian court has banned a couple from naming their child after an ancient king over fears the child would be molested.

Catarina and Danillo PrÃmola had planned to name their newborn son Piyé, paying homage to the first black Egyptian pharaoh, who had ruled Egypt for 30 years and helped found the 25th dynasty.

However, the Court of Justice in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and the civil registry office ruled that the pronunciation of Piyé is too similar to plié – a Portuguese word for a ballet dance step.

Although piyé is spelled differently, the court claimed that parents would not be allowed to “register first names that might expose their bearers to ridicule”.

“This is why the sound and spelling of the name were predominant for the rejection,” the Minas Gerais Court of Justice said, according to the Daily Mail. “They will be able to cause future embarrassment to the child.”

A judge reversed the decision to block the name on Friday, the paper added.

The couple first got the idea for the name after hearing a theme song for the 2023 Carnival in Rio de Janeiro while practicing choreography at the Acadêmicos de Venda Nova Samba school.

The new parents thought it would be a “powerful way to give a new narrative to the history of black people.”

“We went to research how it was and found the story of Piiê, who was a Nubian warrior who fought and conquered Egypt and became the first black pharaoh,” PrÃmola told the paper.

Piyé was born in Sudan and rose to power in Egypt in 744 BC. He died in 715 BC and was succeeded by his brother Shabako, according to Smart History.

The battle over the name delayed the couple from giving their child necessary vaccinations and forced them to be late for a screening to detect rare health conditions.

“We know that bullying cannot be fought by banning it, nor can it be fought by repression,” said Danillo PrÃmola. “Bullying can be combated by studying and working on the ignorance of society as a whole.”

This is not the first time a judge has blocked parents from choosing certain names for their children.

In 2013, a judge in Tennessee ordered that a baby’s name be changed from Messiah to Martin after a child support hearing.

The judicial officer in charge of the case said that religious residents in the area would be offended and added that this is a title that only Jesus Chris had earned and it would be an unfair burden to put on the child.

In France, courts have rejected baby names like Nutella and Prince William because they didn’t want children to be ridiculed.

By postal wire