French couple banned from calling their son Prince William

A French couple has been banned from naming their son ‘Prince William’.

The parents said they thought the connection with British royalty would be useful, but a court ruled that using ‘Prince William’ as an extended first name could lead to a ‘lifetime of mockery’.

The couple, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, then asked to use the name ‘Mini Cooper’, after the classic British car, but that too was overruled.

The court cited an article of France’s civil code, which ‘allows judges to protect a child from a potential lifetime of mockery by overruling the parents’,
In the last year, a court in Valenciennes, northern France, has banned one couple from naming their daughter Nutella, after the hazelnut spread, and another from calling their baby girl Strawberry, because both youngsters would face being mocked.