A child was born to a Muslim mother and a Sikh father and was given Sikh names at birth. When the little boy was two, the parents separated and the mother moved back to her own family, who had originally disapproved of the marriage.
In order to help her son fit in to the local community, the mother gave the child Muslim names and applied to court for a formal deed to confirm this.
The court agreed that the child should have a Muslim
name in everyday life, but decided that his birth name should remain his
official registered name. The judge said that a formal name change would
wrongly symbolise the exclusion of the father from his son's life.