The Couple Who Named Their Son Lucifer

Photo by Jill Sauve on Unsplash

When an official registrar received a couple and their four months son into her office, she never thought a standoff over the baby’s name would make it to national news. Instead, 37-year-old Dan Sheldon and his 32-year-old wife Mandy from Chesterfield in the UK thought their son’s name was not only fancy but also unique.

However, when they told the registrar that they wanted to name their newborn son Lucifer, the registrar couldn’t contain herself and informed the eager parents that the name they wanted to give their son was the Devil’s moniker. Furthermore, in a bid to talk the parents out of the Lucifer name, the registrar tried to persuade Dan and his wife of the trouble such a name might bring to the boy in the future.

As the registrar pleaded with the parents, Dan and his wife were adamant in their decision. The angry couple recounting the standoff at the registrar’s office told reporters,

“We were really excited to go and get him registered but the woman looked at us in utter disgust. She told us he would never be able to get a job, and that teachers wouldn’t want to teach him. I tried to explain that we are not religious people, and Lucifer in Greek means’ light-bringer’ and ‘morning’ but she wouldn’t listen.”

While it’s not a crime in the UK to name a child after the Devil’s moniker, research suggests the name a child is given carries weight as it impacts the child’s life well into adulthood. For this reason, scientists say there is a correlation between unpopular first names and juvenile crime, meaning the child might have a behavioral problem later in life. However, the impact of a name on a child goes well beyond that, as names influence people’s reactions to them.

Dan Sheldon and his son Lucifer

While research about the impact of baby names has been conducted as early as 1948, research carried out by prominent institutions such as Harvard University revealed graduates with unusual names were likely to have failed or sustained negative psychological experiences. Harvard’s study involved 3,300 recent graduates and concluded that names influence the choice of a person’s profession, where they live, who they marry, and even the quality of their work. So, in a nutshell, names significantly impact our lives.

Nevertheless, much to the registrar’s disappointment, Dan Sheldon and his wife finally won and succeeded in naming their son Lucifer. Moreover, the Derbyshire County authorities apologized to the family for the grief they were caused. In a statement, the county spokesperson said,

“We apologise if they were offended but it is the job of our registrars to advise in these matters as sometimes people are not aware of certain meanings or associations around certain names.”

Although the couple didn’t have a smooth naming process at the registrar’s office, time will tell whether Dan Sheldon and his wife will ever regret the unique name they chose for their son or the impact their decision will have on the child’s future.