In September 2014, parents in Valenciennes, France, registered their newborn daughter with a first name almost everyone already knew: Nutella. The civil registrar accepted the paperwork but alerted the public prosecutor, beginning the peculiar legal journey from a birth certificate to the breakfast aisle. Under French law, parents generally choose a child's name freely. If a registrar believes the choice may be contrary to the child's interests, however, the prosecutor can send it to a family judge.

The case reached court that November. The parents did not attend the hearing. The judge concluded that attaching the commercial name of a hazelnut spread to a child was likely to invite mockery or disparaging remarks and was therefore against her interests. The court removed the first two letters and recorded her as Ella. Contemporary reports made the ruling sound like part of an official list of forbidden French baby names, but the system is more individual and stranger than that: a registrar flags a specific choice, and a judge evaluates the potential harm.

Nutella was not even the only food-related name reviewed in the same region. Another couple's choice, Fraise—the French word for strawberry—was rejected, while the alternative Fraisine was accepted. France had loosened older naming restrictions in 1993, but freedom arrived with a judicial emergency brake. Parents may reach for poetry, produce or pantry brands; the state keeps a hand near the name tag.