North Carolina Couple Welcomes Atrium Health’s ‘Baby New Year’

For some strange reason, the 'First Baby of the New Year' has always been a fascination for me.  I have NO IDEA why, but I'd be lying if I said this hasn't INCREASED in recent times.  You see one of my best friends came out with a stunning revelation a couple of years ago.  In casual conversation it came out that my parents' anniversary is New Year's Eve.  My friend responded with the tidbit that her birthday is New Year's Day.  Wait, it gets better.  Yup, when she was born, she WAS 'The First Baby of the New Year."  Hence, her nickname, "Baby New Year," was born (in fact, she's thrown off if I ever call her 'Melanie'-her given name).

Anyway, I'm always intrigued to find out about these children who will be the answer to a great trivia question for life.  Meet the Cannon family of Concord.  Jonathan and Rachel were not expecting their bundle of joy to arrive until January 8th.  Hope they got the nursery finished early.  On January 1st at 12:06 am, they welcomed a new son into the world and their family at Atrium Health Cabarrus.  Baby boy Cannon weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 19.76 inches long.

Keeping with the move started with their first child (also a son), the Cannons chose not to find out the baby's gender in advance.  So, no name was at the ready.  Daddy Jonathan tells WCNC, "I guess it's our tradition.  We did the same thing with our first son. We didn't pick a name till he was like two days old. And they were like, you have to pick a name before you leave the hospital."

One last interesting fact, holiday birthdays are becoming a thing with the Cannon family.  Rachel's birthday is Valentine's Day and their eldest son was born in late November, so his birthday can fall on Thanksgiving on occasion.

And now, they have the first baby of the new year 2024 at Atrium Health Cabarrus.

For many parents, naming a child can become a stressful process. Perhaps, it's the pressure of giving a tiny human a name they will have for their entire life. Some families name their kids after a family member, someone famous, fictional characters, or sometimes something that reminds them of a sweet memory. Parents have the right to choose a child's name. However, that responsibility comes with a few restrictions.

Some states have naming laws and restrictions that define whether new parents are allowed to choose a certain name for their baby or not. According to USBirthCertificates.com, a vital records application preparation assistance service, certain states have other kinds of naming restrictions in place to protect children. This includes banning the use of obscenity in names.

Several states limit the number of characters that can be used in a name because of official birth records software used in the U.S. Apparently, in Nebraska first, middle and last names must be less than 100 characters total.

While other states go as far as banning the use of numerical digits or emojis. For example, Massachusetts only allow letters found on the standard English keyboard to be used in baby names. There are also states who prohibit naming children after people who have committed heinous crimes. We don't know why anyone would, but this means you can’t name your child "Adolf Hitler."

Many of the common naming restrictions include derogatory terms, obscenity, offensive names, numbers, and certain characters like asterisks. However, there are celebrities like Grimes and Elon Musk who didn’t let their states restrictions stop them from naming their kids Exa Dark Sideræl referred to as "Y" and  X Æ A-XII, nicknamed "X."

If you are in the "naming" process, you should become familiar with the restrictions set in place by each state to avoid birth certificate surprises.

In 2013, a child support magistrate in East Tennessee ruled that a 7-month-old boy named Messiah must have his name changed to Martin. "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," said  Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew.

In 2009, New Jersey parents Heath and Deborah Campbell were taken into state custody after authorities got involved in a cake incident. A bakery refused to decorate a cake with the words "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler." The Campbell’s gave their three children Nazi-inspired names including Adolf Hitler . Though the state said that their names were not the reason, it's been reported that the parents didn't believe them.

In 2018, Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk of Georgia sued their home state after officials refused to let them name their daughter ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah. The issue was Allah, the two-year-old girl's last name. Georgia law requires that children bear the last name of at least one of their parents. The parents won the case, with the help of lawyers from the ACLU.

In 1976, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that short-order cook and high school teacher Michael Herbert Dengler could not change his name to "1069."

In December 1999, Robert William Handley of Ohio filed a petition to change his name to Santa Robert Claus. Judge Lawrence Belskis denied his petition saying that "the public has a proprietary interest, a proprietary right in the identity of Santa Claus, both in the name and the persona."

A 1984 ruling from the California Courts of Appeal denied a request from Thomas Boyd Ritchie III to change his name to the Roman numeral "III," pronounced "Three." The court said that, "a change to a roman numeral did not constitute a name change within the meaning of the law and that the new 'name' used by appellant was inherently confusing."