It's normal to love your newborn baby and believe he or she is the most amazing person on Earth. However, one Tennessee family decided to name their son Messiah, which is the Christian religious name and means "that one person is Jesus Christ."
Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered the name change last week, according to WBIR-TV. The parent renamed the 7-month-old boy from Messiah DeShawn Martin to change the baby's name to Martin DeShawn McCullough.
The parents first wound up in after they failed to decide upon a last name for the child. The parents and just already settled on the first name, but when Ballew heard it, she requested a further change.
"The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ," Ballew said. As WBIR reports, the boy's mother, Jaleesa Martin, responded saying, "I was shocked. I never intended on naming my son Messiah because it means God and I didn't think a judge could make me change my baby's name because of her religious beliefs."
The boy's mother, Jaleesa Martin, of Newport, said she will appeal. She says Messiah is unique and she liked how it sounded alongside the boy's two siblings - Micah and Mason.
"Everybody believes what they want so I think I should be able to name my child what I want to name him, not someone else," Martin said, according to the report.
The name Messiah has steadily grown in popularity since 2005. According to the Social Security Administration's database of baby names shows, the name was in the top 400 for 2012, after being ranked outside the top 1,000 names in 2004 and earlier years.
