1.14.2009

What's In A Name: Adolf Hitler Campbell?

It seems the Campbell family in Holland Township, NJ chose their kids' names very poorly, for the following reasons;

(1) They cannot get a personalized birthday cake for their son Adolf at the local supermarket, (msnbc link) and
(2) It appears that the kids have been taken from their parents by the state Division of Youth and Family Services for the "Nazi cannotations" their names carry (msnbc link).

I for one think little Adolf's parents are idiots - cruel idiots - to tag their precious son with a name like "Adolf Hitler Campbell," knowing full well the historical baggage a name like that pulls with it. And little "JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell" is going to have some steep hills to climb in her future with that moniker, as is her sister, "Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell."

Lapses in name selection judgement aside, I think there'd better be more to the story of these kids being removed from their home than their strange names alone. Otherwise, kids like the little boy living down the street from my folks, 'Wolfenstein Lawrence Gibson," runs a risk of winding up in state custody.

At least Heath and Deborah Campbell have probably managed to secure unique user names on Facebook, MySpace and RocketMail for their children.

2 comments:

Webmaster said...

I, for one, have to wonder about the stability of these kids parents if they would give their kids such names in the first place. While I don't condone the state taking custody of children in general, maybe if we would provide more PREEMPTIVE protection, we would have fewer problems. Sex offenders and drunk drivers and yes, abusive parents, make victims of others because we fail to PREVENT them, choosing to wait instead until they commit a crime before they take action.

Dennis said...

Thanks for the comment, Joe. We have to be cautious enforcing crimes before they're committed, lest we live the 'Minority Report' scenario and start arresting people for 'pre-crime'.

So far, the only thing the Campbells have done is name their kids some pretty dreadful names and nothing else that I'm aware of. Alcoholism and abuse haven't been made public...