Yep, It’s 4Real: New Zealand Couple Want to Give Son Unusual Name

By Anastacia Mott Austin

New Zealand couple Pat and Sheena Wheaton don’t understand what all the fuss is about.

They have attracted worldwide attention because of their fight to be allowed to name their infant son "4Real."

They chose the name, they say, because after viewing an ultrasound during the pregnancy it suddenly hit them that the idea of parenthood had become - you guessed it - for real.

"The name has meaning for us, so why not?" asked Pat Wheaton during an interview with The New Zealand Herald. "For most of us, when we try to figure out what our names mean, we have to look it up in a baby’s book and…there’s no direct link between the meaning and the name." Added Wheaton in a television interview. "With this name, everyone knows what it means."

Current regulations at the New Zealand’s Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages states that names starting with a number are not allowed.

The rules also do not allow names that are similar to a title or rank, unusually long names, and names that might cause "offense to a reasonable person," like "Adolf Hitler" or "Satan," two recently rejected names.

The Registry office will weigh each case as it appears before them, and representatives of the office have stated that the Wheaton’s case is still under review. "The name has not at this stage been rejected," said the Registrar-General Brian Clarke to the press. "We are currently in discussions with the parents…to clarify the situation."

If the case has not been resolved by the time baby "4Real" turns two months old, the required age of legal name registration in New Zealand, his name will be recorded as "Real."

Argued Pat Wheaton, "If it was George Bush’s child, or the Dalai Lama’s, no one would care what it was called."

Interesting that he should mention George Bush, because another New Zealand couple made headlines recently by naming their child Georgebush Neely, a name apparently not designed to instantly cause offense according to the Registry office.

Other names in the press of late include a couple who named their child Urhines, pronounced "Your Highness," and a family with a baby named "Special K," apparently in tribute to the recreational drug Ketamine.

In the United States, odd and unusual baby names are par for the course, at least in Hollywood. Recent additions to the list are Audio Science, born to actress Shannyn Sossomon; Pilot Inspektor, daughter of actor Jason Lee; and Penn Jillette’s daughter Moxie Crimefighter.