I actually applaud whoever called CPS. As sickening as it is to witness the physical abuse of a child people tend to sleep on the psycological and emotional abuse kids suffer. I work with “at risk” (hate that term but for lack of better words) kids in a urban school district. The majority of my HARDEST cases are trying to undue the sheer amount of extreme psycological abuse that these kids have suffered. Little girls who watch domestic violence, young boys who grow up watching thier parents sell meth, indoctrination of street culture and violence. OMG…these are the same kids that are exhibiting some of THE WORST displays of acting out and out of control behavior. Enviornment is not only critical when there is physical abuse. The problem is that it’s hard to prove that a parent is willfully psycologically damaging their child so how can the state intervene. But if a parent is STUPID enough to name their kid Hitler then they flat out are advertising that “yes i will be psycologically abusing my kid for their entire childhood”. What if little Hitler grows up and becomes a seething racist fundamentalist and pulls an act like the dude just did in Norway. HITLER…com’on! Then you will have the exact same people saying CPS is wasting thier time on the flip end asking why noone caught this sooner. Training your kid to have that level of hate and racism is equivelant to teaching them how to steal or how to hold a hand gun. FLAT OUT IRRESPONSIBLE and they dont need to have kids…period.

I also take slight issue with the assumption that CPS went “rushing in over a name” at the expense of a child in an physically abusive situation. I dont know if you work in child protective services or not but if you do you have to know the vast amount of work that each case manager has. A. the article said that CPS was called, not the child was removed. They should have been called and CPS has a obligation to invistigate considering it has legitimacy. I am almost certain none of those children will be removed (although in a perfect world they would) but it at least starts a paper trail and lets the God Awful Parents know that they are being watched and if those children start to progress past ideology to outward violence or issues at school they can be removed. B People have a very unrealistic and skewed vision of CPS. When a child is abused or falls through the cracks it is CPS’s fault because they “didn’t catch it”. There is a sickening connotation that CPS wasts time with the small stuff while the “truely” neglected kids go unnoticed. That is garbage. There are some terrible case managers, but the reality is most truely care and take their jobs seriously. They are not the bumbling elitist snobish socialworkers (which is another stereotype). The problem is that the atmosphere in this country through drugs, violence, poverty is getting increasingly worse, thus the parents are getting worse, thus the case loads are higher. Some are going to fall through the cracks because there are NOT enough casemanagers to even begin to tackle the problem. Also there are not enough effective treatment programs to help the families. Also there is not enough jobs so that these impovershed families can better their situations and excape the ghetto and their ghetto mentalities. So please be sickened by the state of the Nation, not CPS.

I don’t really think it’s anyone’s business what parents name their kids…in this situation, interfering on the child’s behalf seems unnecessary because no matter what these kids end up with as their names, if they have parents like this they’re going to be really screwed up anyway.

I have to agree with Jeneria. It’s a slipperly slope if governments start dictating what we can and cannot name our children. That should be between the parent, child. Otherwise, where do you draw the line? Standardized spelling of names? Ban names from other languages besides the country’s native language? Taste is so subjective – one man’s “‘Pluto Lives Smith’ is an awesome name!” is another man’s “Dude, that’s wack.” And the name “Lucifer” was around long before English speakers somewhat arbitrarily ascribed it to the devil – it means “light bearer” and was originally used to describe Venus, or the Morning Star.
I also agree that CPS should not have been called on the PA family unless they were physically, emotionally or sexually abusing their children. However awful it is that they decided to name their children that, and however dreadful racism is, it is not illegal to pass on appalling beliefs or political ideas to one’s children. Freedom of speech (and names) has to apply to the things we do not like as well as the things we do.

Well, I couldn’t name my son in New Zealand. He is due in a short while and his name will be Bishop Roswell. :) I love the name and am glad I can name him whatever I like. This is the land of free speech so I do not think it is appropriate for us to restrict people on naming their children. Most people have a little common sense. Those that don’t well their kids will let them know they hate the name or that they get picked on etc.. and the kids can always change it later. Its not hard and is not expensive.

We are going with Savannah Rayne for our little girl. Not too out there but not common either. It’s the meaning it has behind it for us that makes it a bit funny. My husband and I used to breed purebred cats before we ever thought kids were in our future. We always gave our cats a human name because they are members of our family, so when we found out we were having a human baby, we decided to name her after a breed of cat! We picked the Savannah cat (it is a cross between a Serval and a domestic cat, but also one of the most beautiful breeds out there!) As for the Rayne, our first beloved queen was named Kianna Rayne and we are giving her the middle name Rayne to remember our Kiki by. Had she been a boy she would have been named Zaidyn, in honor of our Bengal Kaidyn. Not too weird, not too normal and I hope it won’t scar her for life! I can just see it now though, “MOM I WANT A DOG!” lol

P.S. We know a man who legally changed his name to Santa Claus who every year plays Santa Claus and otherwise moonlights for the U.S. Census so people might be able to get jobs even if they have ridiculous names.