Judgment of the District Court of Central Netherlands dated February 14, 2020

Requesters have a son who is a few weeks old. The pregnancy period was very traumatic for the requester due to a number of complications. She was supposed to undergo several medical surgeries for this reason. Requesters discussed the choice of their son’s name with each other during this period and just before the surgeries, they decided to name him Aaron Daley*.

When their son was born, requesters felt intense joy with his arrival, but unfortunately, the requester quickly experienced (severe) psychological problems due to the medical complications she had been presented with. She realized that there was a more than realistic possibility that she would not have a healthy child, which led to the thought, especially with the requester, that the name Aaron was reserved for the child who would not be allowed to stay with them. It was a very emotional period for the requester.

Today, especially the requester experiences (severe) discomfort from the first name; the reason for this is that the name reminds her of the traumatic pregnancy period. These problems for the requester have even gone so far that she is under treatment with a psychologist and has undergone EMDR therapies. For the aforementioned reasons and to prevent further association with the traumatic pregnancy period, requesters want to change their son’s first name to Daniel Aaron Daley through this request. The requester seeks closure for the traumatic pregnancy period as it has been characterized by numerous medical complications. Besides the fact that requesters like the name, they realize that the birth of their son could have had a bad outcome for both the pupil and the requester.

Requesters feel fortunate with the arrival of their son but at the same time realize that they were lucky to have had medical support during the birth of the requester, which led to the timely birth of the son. Thus, through the name change of the pupil, the requester seeks closure of the very traumatic pregnancy period, and changing the name to Daniel will allow the requester to seek mental recovery.

The court rules that requesters have a sufficiently weighty interest in the request. The application is granted (in writing).

• Actual first name is fictional.