Rebelote. A couple of parents residing in a town near Angers (Maine-et-Loire) were summoned in February before a family affairs judge for having named their son Fañch last summer with a tilde (~), a sign alphabetical form prohibited in civil status in France, according to a letter consulted on Sunday by AFP. The Civil Code does indeed provide that “the child’s first names are chosen freely by his father and mother” but this freedom is limited by the interests of the child, justifies the Angers public prosecutor’s office in its decision.
“In this case, the tilde on the n of the first name Fañch is not a diacritic sign retained by the French language” under the terms of a circular of July 23, 2014, continues the public prosecutor who therefore considers that this first name, of Breton origin like the baby’s mother, is “contrary to the interests of the child”.
The Angers public prosecutor’s office therefore asks the family affairs judge to order the deletion of the first name Fañch from the birth certificate and to “assign the child another first name with the agreement of the parents or, failing that, without their agreement “.
“We imply that we are bad parents”
“We are told that we are not taking into account the best interests of our child. It’s violent. It’s implied that we’re bad parents, just for a tilde,” the mother told Western Mailwhich revealed the existence of these lawsuits.
The couple had been warned at the maternity ward by the civil status officer that the spelling of this first name could pose a problem under the law but “we made the choice to keep it and fight if necessary”, a explained the mother to the newspaper.
The tilde validated by justice
This affair has an air of déjà vu since the first name Fañch has already twice provoked legal proceedings for this legally unwanted tilde, in 2017 in Quimper, then in 2019 in Morlaix. Each time, justice had validated the use of this sign which “is not unknown to the French language” as the Rennes Court of Appeal emphasized in November 2018. Near Lorient, a baby born last June and given a first name was also refused his first name by the prosecution.
But despite recurring promises, the 2014 ministerial circular listing the signs authorized on certain letters (accents, diaeresis, cedilla… but not the tilde) has never been modified and the problem remains. Near Lorient, a baby born last June and given a first name was also refused his first name by the prosecution.
Breton first names are not the only ones potentially affected. A parliamentary report thus detailed a list of diacritical signs used in many regional languages of France, such as the ā, ē, ī, ō, ū in Tahitian, the sign ò in Catalan, Creole and Occitan or the sign ì in Alsatian and in Corsica.