Estranged dad won’t sign son’s passport as he doesn’t like name

A father has told a judge that he is refusing to sign forms to allow his two-year-old son to obtain a passport because he doesn’t like the name given to the boy by his mother.

At the Family Law Court, the father told Judge Mary Larkin that the middle name given to the boy by his mother “is a name you give to people who beat drums and dance – we don’t beat drums and we don’t dance in our family”.

The man said that when his estranged wife had the baby “we sat down together and made a decision of the name we were going to give to the baby”.

The man said however that his estranged wife included the additional name in their son’s birth certificate without telling him.

He said, “We have no such name in our family. It is for people who beat drums and dance and we don’t belong to that family.”

He said, “I said to her ‘Remove the name and let me sign the forms for the passport’ and she refused.”

The matter was before the court as the mother was making an application that the judge would dispense with the father’s permission to have the passport documents signed and direct that the passport can be issued without the father’s permission.

In her ruling, Judge Larkin told the man, “You either sign the form for the passport on or before September 1st or I will dispense with your consent at the next court date and allow the passport to be issued.”

Judge Larkin told the man that if he wanted the child’s name to be changed on the birth cert he would need to get a lawyer to advance that.

Judge Larkin said, “If that is the name on his birth cert there is nothing I can do about it. You can make an application to the court.”

The mother told the court that the name is the one she wants for her son.

She said: “The name has meaning for me.”

The man replied: “I didn’t pick that name.”

The parents were born in Africa and the man confirmed that he and his wife are separated and said that the choice of the son’s name was part of the reason why they separated.

Solicitor for the mother, Sarah Jane Whyte said however that there are other orders in place in relation to the Domestic Violence Act in the case.