A month ago, the New Mexico Court of Appeals rejected an attempt to change one’s name to “Fuck Censorship!” (Thanks to commenter Tom Hynes for the pointer.) The court didn’t cite the Darren QX Bean! case, but it did cite Misteri Nigger for the proposition that “one has a common law right to assume any name, and a right to engage in a social experiment, but one does not have a right to require the state to participate in the experiment, especially when the experiment involves epithets or vulgarities.
Fuck Censorship! has to remain, for legal purposes, Variable. Yes, that’s it. What’s more, In re Mokiligon, 106 P.3d 584 (N.M. App. 2004), expressly upheld the then-not-yet-Variable’s right to change his name to Variable. The court did, however, feel the need to stress that “Petitioner is restricted to using the word ‘variable’ as his legal name. The court is not granting him the power to actually vary his legal name at will and he is limited to using ‘variable’ ….”
What was Variable’s earlier name? I’m glad you asked:
Snaphappy Fishsuit Mokiligon.