Mom barred from naming baby 'Cyanide' chose name for Hitler connection

POWYS, Wales, April 15 (UPI) -- A Welsh mother whose attempt to name her daughter "Cyanide" was blocked by a court said she wanted to name the girl after the poison that killed Hitler.

The three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld a lower court judge's ruling blocking the Powys woman from naming her twins Cyanide and Preacher.

The woman had argued Cyanide was a "lovely, pretty name" with positive connotations because some historians believe the poison killed both Adolf Hitler and the Nazi leader's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.

"I consider that this was a good thing," she said.

However, the judges ruled the "unusual" names for the children, particularly the one fashioned after a "notorious poison," could do them harm.

The judges said Preacher was not as objectionable a name as Cyanide, but they determined both children's names should be chosen by their half-siblings instead of their mother, who has a history of mental illness and drug abuse.

"This is one of those rare cases where the court should intervene to protect the girl twin from emotional harm that I am satisfied she would suffer if called 'Cyanide,'" Lady Justice Eleanor King said in the ruling.

The court heard the twins and their older half-siblings have all been taken from the woman's custody and are in foster care.