Here at The18, we pride ourselves on a wealth of scandalously useless information. We’re the ones who brought you “The Funniest Names In Soccer,” complete with Kevin Lasagna, Bongo Christ, Fabian Assman, Danger Fourpence and Yago Pikachu, to name just a few. We would be adding another name to that list, but apparently there’s a civil code in France that’s pissing on our parade.
Let’s just say that if nominative determinism is more than just a bunk hypothesis, then new-born Griezmann Mbappe of Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, is going to win the Ballon d’Or more than Messi and Ronaldo combined.
Yes, a couple in France wants to conjoin the names of Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe into one hyper phenom, and that’s currently the boy’s name — it’s on his birth certificate.
However, the local registrar — probably rightly — says the name is “against the child’s best interests or infringing on the rights of third parties to protect their family name.” The case has been referred to a public prosecutor, and a name change could be forthcoming.
It’s been just under 140 days since the World Cup final in Moscow, so we’re about halfway to the wave of thousands more Griezmann Mbappes being born around France.