It all started in 2009 when a family was trying to get a cake made for little Adolf Hitler Campbell. The local New Jersery bakery, ShopRite, refused to write his name on the cake and soon child services were at the door to take away the Campbell’s children. Allegedly they were taken away over tangible evidence of child abuse, but now, in 2011, the dust has settled. Now, there is no evidence to suggest that was even true.
The naming process is a major event for me. Everything from naming your dog to your iPod is an event that gives whatever receives the name a new identity and maybe a personality. You should never let anyone tell you that you’ve named something wrong, especially your kids.
For the Campbell family, Deborah and Heath, they must have learned to live with it quickly. You would, too, if your kids were named Adolf Hitler and JoyceLynn Aryan Race. There is no denying where the parents came up with these names or what motivated them to give these names to their children, and I’m sure you can draw your own conclusions as to what the parents must look like. But assumptions aside, if you had your children taken away from you because of the name you gave them, what does that say?
The poor parents have been left to protest the taking of their three children, pleading for them to come home. This is tragic. It shouldn’t matter if the kid was named “Keith” or “Antidisestablishmentarianism.” There is no excuse for removing these poor children from their parental care because of their names.
I do agree that it will be hard for these kids to grow up in a society that generally disapproves of what Hitler (the dictator, not the kid) did, but that doesn’t justify the actions taken by child services. Adolf’s father said that Adolph is a normal boy and does normal things, despite the inferred skepticism about his name. So then, what does it matter?
I don’t think it should matter if your first, middle or last name is offensive to anyone. We all have the same freedom of speech to name our kids whatever we want. Michael Jackson named his son Blanket, Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple, and no one batted an eye. Who cares if people associate your children’s names with a ruthless dictator or some other negative political movement. Our president’s middle name is Hussein for Pete’s sake.
