Deaf baby becomes first person to have sign language name registered on birth certificate in Britain

Four-year-old Hazel Garfield-Lichy was born deaf.

Shortly after her birth, her parents, Paula Garfield and Tomato Lichy, began fighting to have her sign-language name, UbOtDDstarL, registered on her birth certificate.

Garfield and Lichy are both part of the Deaf community — the capital “D” refers to a cultural identity — and have an older daughter, Molly, who is also deaf. When Molly was born, their request to have her sign name on her birth certificate was denied. When Hazel was born, they became even more determined to see her sign name registered.

Garfield told the Daily Mail that they wanted Hazel’s British Sign Language (BSL) name on the birth certificate because there was no way to translate it, a reference to a smiling face, into a written name.

"My daughter’s sign name is what it is because her first expression was a smile," Garfield told the Daily Mail. “There’s no way to translate it perfectly into English.”

"A sign name is not just an English name spelled out with the fingers. While Deaf people do have English names, which can be written, spelled out, or mouthed, they use signs, created specially for individuals, to refer to each other within their own community," Mental Floss’ Arika Okrent explained.

“Hazel’s sign name…is formed by a change from a closed to open index and thumb hand shape near the chin.”

Garfield and Lichy consulted a linguist about how to write out Hazel’s sign name in notation form. Her BSL name: UbOtDDstarL.

The Register Office initially refused the request for a registered BSL name, calling it “ridiculous.” So Hazel’s parents consulted with a lawyer, who pointed out that the Register Office allows people to have their names on their birth certificates “in their own language.” Since BSL is a recognized language in the UK, the Register Officer reversed its decision nine months after first denying the Garfield and Lichy’s request.

'We've been so used to having our language dismissed and we've accepted that,” Garfield said in a video for BSL Zone. “But the law is there, and we have rights. Sign language is stronger than we thought.”

According to a spokesperson for the British Deaf Association, “When you come up with a sign name it’s often as a result of a characteristic. Judging by the type of symbols in this name, the parents might have noticed Hazel smiles or laughs a lot.”

'With other people, if they talk a lot for example their sign name might include wiggling fingers at their mouth. But there’s no exact translation. Hazel’s isn’t a specific name or spelt out. It all depends on the context of the relationship with the child.’

While Hazel is now four, the story about her name is only making headlines now.

Watch Garfield and Lichy tell Hazel’s story — and see what Hazel’s sign name looks like — in this video from BSL Zone.