In France, a legal battle is underway regarding the recognition of the tilde in names, sparked by parents of two boys named Fañch. Following a court hearing in Lorient, the families challenge a prosecutor’s decision to remove the tilde, arguing it honors their heritage. Similar cases are pending in Angers, reflecting broader issues with diacritical marks in regional names. Despite previous court rulings favoring the use of such signs, current regulations remain unchanged, limiting parental naming rights.
Push for Tilde Recognition in France
Is France on the verge of officially recognizing the tilde? This is the hope of the lawyer representing the parents of two young boys named Fañch, born on June 17 and July 26, 2023, in Morbihan and Maine-et-Loire, respectively. These families will appear in court this February to challenge the removal of the tilde from their children’s names. A significant hearing took place recently at the Lorient court to advocate for this name, which pays tribute to a beloved great-grandfather, contesting the prosecutor’s decision to eliminate the tilded ‘n’. The court’s ruling is anticipated on February 24, 2025, marking an important date for this deliberation.
Legal Battles Over Diacritical Marks
Initially, the mayor of Lorient, Fabrice Loher, approved the registration of the name in the civil registry. However, three months after the birth, the public prosecutor requested the removal of the diacritical mark. Standing firm, the parents opted to take their case to court. “The tilde does not jeopardize the interests of the child or the nation,” asserted the family’s lawyer, Iannis Alvarez, in comments to local media.
In a related case, the Angers Court of Appeal is scheduled to make a decision on February 27 regarding the name Fañch. Similar to the situation in Lorient, the Angers prosecutor is pushing for the cancellation of the birth certificate and for the child to be assigned another name, either with or without the parents’ agreement.
This issue traces back to a year ago, when the Maine-et-Loire couple faced a family court judge. The Civil Code allows parents to freely choose their child’s name, but this freedom is constrained by the child’s best interests, as emphasized by the Angers public prosecutor. The tilded ‘n’, they argue, is officially prohibited in the French civil registry, being “not a recognized diacritical mark in the French language,” according to a circular issued on July 23, 2014. This has led to the conclusion that the name, which has Breton roots like the mother, is “contrary to the child’s interest.”
Despite assurances, the 2014 ministerial circular detailing permissible diacritical marks (such as accents and cedillas) has yet to be updated, leaving the issue unresolved.
Prior to these recent cases, the name Fañch had already sparked legal disputes twice in 2017 and 2019, with courts affirming the use of this sign, which they noted is not entirely foreign to the French language, as highlighted by the Rennes Court of Appeal in November 2018.
It’s worth noting that Breton names are not the only ones facing potential issues. In late 2022, parents of a child named ‘Artús’, an Occitan variant of Arthur, found their choice rejected due to the acute accent on the ‘u’. A parliamentary report from February 2020 outlined various diacritical marks utilized in numerous regional languages across France, including marks like ā, ē, ī, ō, ū in Tahitian, and the sign ò in Catalan, Creole, and Occitan, as well as the sign ì in Alsatian and Corsican.