French baby gets to keep 'Vampire' name

BUSIGNY, France, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The French parents who were taken to court for trying to name their son after a character on "The Vampire Diaries" were given permission to keep the moniker.

Lionel and Blandine Defontaine of Busigny said they named their son, born Nov. 3, Daemon after the character Damon on the U.S. TV series and added the "e" to make it seem more French, Radio France Internationale reported Thursday.

The parents were taken to court under a French law banning names that would be "contrary to the interests of a child" with prosecutors arguing the moniker has satanic connotations.

However, the judge gave the parents permission to continue calling their son Daemon.

The law was previously used in 1999 to take a pair of parents to court when they named their daughter Megane, which prosecutors said sounded too similar to the name of a French automobile, the Renault Megane. An appeals court ruled in 2000 to allow the girl to keep the name.