Hot on HuffPost Parents:
Jennifer Pellegrini: After a Wild Week of News, Two Stories You Might…
Rev. Susan Baller-Shepard: Wild And Precious Lives: Godspeed…
Adolf Hitler Campbell Removed From Parents' Home
Filed under: In The News, Weird But True
Remember little 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell? How could we forget the poor New Jersey boy whose parents saw no harm in naming their son after one of the world's most notorious murderers? Perhaps now they are beginning to see how that wasn't such a great idea. According to Holland Township police chief David Van Gilson, Adolf and his younger siblings JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler have been removed from their parents' home by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services.The children's father, Heath Campbell, denied to a reporter that his children were taken and, as is their policy, the Division of Youth and Family Services would not comment. But Chief Gilson says that the kids were taken last week in the presence of a township police officer. He goes on to say that a hearing is scheduled for Thursday to decide whether the state can place the children temporarily in another home.
Top Baby Names 2008
The results are in and the top baby names for 2008 have been determined according to Babycenter.com. And despite the celebrity weirdness of late (Zuma Nesta Rock? Bronx Mowgli?) average parents are sticking with average names for their offspring.
For boys, Aiden retained his spot as the number one name (a position held since 2005), followed by Jayden, Ethan and Jacob. For the girls, Emma made a return to the number one position, knocking off last year's Sophia and beating out Isabella and Olivia. Seeing as how this was an election year, it isn't surprising to find that presidential names were popular with lots of boys being named Jackson and Tyler and girls getting Madison, Taylor and Kennedy.
Babycenter's editor-in-chief, Linda Murray says the results show a trend toward classic and old-fashioned names. "Times have changed and people are taking the world more seriously, affected by what is going on the world," she said.
Yes, it seems that most parents don't want their children being teased and chose names that would reflect something positive about them. For boys, parents said they wanted names that represented strength, kindness and compassion, compared to the strength and individuality they were going for in 2007. For girls, parents were looking for something that expressed kindness, compassion, intelligence and strength. Last year, they were looking for femininity and individuality.
I can't help but notice that for both boys' and girls' names, parents seem to have lost the desire for names that express individuality. Why do you suppose that is?
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
10. Matthew
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
9. Logan
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
8. Jack
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
7. Noah
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
6. Jackson
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
5. Caden
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
4. Jacob
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
3. Ethan
sxc.hu
Top 10 Boys Names
2. Jayden
sxc.hu
Gilson didn't say why the children were removed from the home or where they were taken, but says his department has received no reports of abuse or neglect.
Since the story of Adolf and his family hit the news, Heath Campbell says he has received numerous threats. I find that disturbing, but not surprising. And while I am heartbroken for these children, I am somewhat relieved. With such inappropriate names, these kids are facing a lifetime of hardship, rejection and worse.
"If names are bad because they're likely to cause children problems, where do you draw the line?" queries Laura Wattenberg of BabyNameWizard.com. Right here. Perhaps action taken now will prevent that from happening.
Your<span>Voice</span>
Ask Us Anything About Parenting
Recently Asked
- Why should anyone listen to a _____, what makes her an expert? Harpo is jus an actress, all she does is sit on her tush & claim she knows it all. ...
- Using a foreign governement company to defend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA alot of .gov huh
- Is it legal to claim relation to a person ? ( OR DOES IT HAVE TO BE FOR MONATERY GAIN) TO BE ILLEGAL ?











ReaderComments (Page 1 of 23)
1-14-2009 @ 9:21PM
Dawn Billings said...Adolf Hitler Cambell and his younger siblings JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler are beautiful children. Children are the greatest gift given to human beings. They are our proof that good exists, laughter heals, touch is precious, love is real, and that we were created to learn and grow. They come to us vulnerable and innocent, and they arrive with an awesome responsibility attached. We are responsible to nurture and guide them, and keep them safe so that they can learn to nurture, protect and guide others.
Life is about legacy. We are all born, we live, and we die and what remains after we are gone is our legacy. There are legacies of great good in the world, and there are legacies of great evil and cruelty.
Life is about story. Story--stringing words together like pearls -- helps us categorize, describe, explain and give meaning to our lives. We as parents, scribble the first lines of a child's story when they are born. Part of that story is influenced by the name we give them.
Names carry meaning, whether a child is named for their grandmother, uncle, mother or father or named for a symbolic purpose, or because his or her parents felt a name was beautiful or unique. Whatever the meaning, names matter. They give an identity to a child and can sometimes alter a child's path. That being said, how could these parents choose to burden their innocent children with such traumatic and difficult legacies?
A child is not a political flag to wave through bullets of hatred, or a billboard on which to advertise your controversial beliefs. They are not targets we stand in front of us, or bait for potential rodents to feed on. These are children.
Is it possible that Adolf and his siblings can succeed in spite of their names? Is it possible that they can overcome the first dark scribble of charcoal, carelessly penned at the beginning of their life story? Yes, anything is possible. And if they do overcome the ugly mark placed upon them at a time when they were helpless and had no control, we can say, good does overcome. But for any parent to consciously choose to make a child's path sharp, brutal, dark and dangerous, full of potential conflict and judgment when they could have chosen so much better for their child, is in my opinion -- abuse.
Dawn Billings is the author of over 15 books on parenting, relationship and succees. She is a faculty member of iLearningGlobal.tv where her insightful and entertaining segments are translated into 5 languages around the world. Dawn is the CEO & Founder of The Heart Link Network www.TheHeartLinkNetwork.com an international womens networking organization, and www.TheHeartAlliance.com a social online community for women and creator of the new parenting toy/tool called the CAPABLES, which are a fun, easy, powerful and effective way for parents of toddlers to teach their children how to grow up to be extraordinary, contributing human beings.
Reply
1-15-2009 @ 6:36AM
Donna said...Daen - that was put beautifully and I totally agree with you.
1-15-2009 @ 7:54AM
Maria said...Removing a child from his parents because the authorities do not like the name that was given is cruel. I thought in this country you can name your child whatever you please, apparently not. Some people note that by giving an odious name to a child automatically that child is scarred for ever, what idiots, the child does not know who Hitler is, most children do not knoweither. Who are you to decide how a child should be named, I thought we lived in a free country. I guess if you name your child Hussein, Sadam, Osama etc. now the police comes and takes your child. I never imagined that this is happening. It is obvious that the parents do not have good judgement then if bad judgement is considered abuse then most Americans should have their children taken away. I consider removing a child from his/her family because of a name bad judgement and abuse. We talk about Russia and China abusing their people what do you think what is being done to this family is?
1-15-2009 @ 9:24AM
tahoe9461 said...that was an amazing retort to the question of abuse, i applaud your insight,and the beautiful way you expressed yourself , thank you.
1-15-2009 @ 8:31AM
Linda said...Dawn Billings>>>.do you know these children first hand? The names they were given or down right immoral and unforgiveable. These parents need a lobotomy PRONTO!!!! These kids will be taunted and sneered at because they have parents with out brains. This is neither funny or even laughable. They will go through hellthe rest of their lives...END OF DISCUSSION!!!!!
1-15-2009 @ 10:06AM
Helen said...Ms. Billings: I must agree wholeheartedly with your post, especially the paragraph that names have meaning. Naming your children in this way seems abusive. Other children and society can be cruel. It seems they have saddled their children with a yoke that will be difficult to carry. Why did they do that? I do not believe the government should be telling us what to name our children and the children should not have been removed for this reason alone. As someone else suggested, maybe there is more to this story than has been reported. If the parents did this to cause an uproar or possibly a misguided attempt to make their children stronger, I hope they will reconsider for their children's sakes. If you must cause a controversy, do not put your children in the middle!
1-15-2009 @ 11:59AM
Hall's said...After reading your comment I wanted to say thank you. Apparently so many of the readers are blind by passion for parental rights that they can not see the harm these parents has placed on their lovely children. No respectable college or university in the world will ever accept these children, neither will any respectable business hire them as employees. Schools and employers will have grave concerns about the home influnces of these children and with good cause. These parents aren't educated enough to understand the serious harm they have place upon such inocent children.
1-14-2009 @ 6:53PM
Karen said...If I were a nurse at the hospital, I probably would have called CPS when little Adolf Hitler was named, or at least alerted his pediatrician to keep close tabs on the poor kid and his siblings. Maybe that's what happened. Regardless, while I support parental rights in almost every (theoretical) situation, these kids did not stand a chance with the idiots trying to raise them; foster care often sucks, but it's better than being raised an ignorant, white-trash neo-Nazi.
Reply
1-15-2009 @ 8:39AM
TUGG said...I find it intersting that you and the rest of the communists that frequently post would agree that removing children from their homes is such a great idea. The government raising children, what a joke. I am sure that all of you are so aware of what happens to children in foster care. Rape, molestation, physical abuse, neglect the list goes on and on. Not to mention that the incompetent case workers have lost over 3,000 children in the state of Florida and Georgia. That is right the can't find their kids on their case loads. Foster families picked up and left with someone elses kids. mLast time i checked this country allows parents the right to freedom of speech including naming your child. You have a very disturbing reaction to a child's name.
1-15-2009 @ 9:13AM
Samantha said...I believe that naming the kids that way was idiotic and very inappropriate, and I support the many reasons why this family should have been under careful surveillance; but if there are no reports of abuse or neglect and the children are in no danger (as far as available evidence - and not simply intuition - can prove), then what happened to the parents' rights here? Since when can the Government come into our homes and take our children away from us for the way we've named them? Americans have rights, and I am aware of no law which states that parents lose the right to raise their own children over insulting or offensive names. Ex-cons and registered sex offenders - known to be dangerous citizens - are trusted with a chance to raise their own children properly; so why was this family not given the same chance? What's next?
1-15-2009 @ 9:25AM
MyOpinion said...Let me start off by saying that I DO NOT agree with these people's name choices for their children. But to remove them from their home based only on the names that they were given, is ridiculous. Where does the line get drawn? Are they going to start taking other children with names they don't agree with or deem appropriate? Damien, Jesus, etc. And might I mention that the future President of the United States has the middle name Hussein? What if someone had taken him from his home because he was given the same name as a tyrant. He had a good upbringing, raised in a household filled with love and now is set to make history as the first black President of the United States regardless of the middle name he was given.
1-15-2009 @ 9:30AM
toby said...Wow, you disagree with the name someone used, even though they did nothing to abuse the child. No neglect, physical, sexual or mental abuse. Just a name you do not like so the government can come in and take them away? That is sad how easily you give up someone else's freedom. I guess that is the direction America is taking. Freedom as long as you do only things I like.
1-15-2009 @ 9:33AM
Jer said...You are neither a nazi nor a communist. What you are is a fascist. From what I've read so far, nobody has even asserted that these kids' parents were white supremacists or anything of the kind. They may well have named their kids as they did just to piss off people like you. If so, hurray for them.
1-15-2009 @ 9:39AM
James said...great! Now the STATE can decide who can keep their kids or not. I DESPISE racists but their rights are just as valid as yours or mine. Will the state next tell us whether or not we can have kids at all? As for Adolph Hitler, in the 1920's he looked at the anti-semitism and racial hatred in the USA and just copied it. Read MEIN KAMPH, it is all there in black and white. I assume that it is still allowed to read books without STATE APPROVAL?
1-15-2009 @ 9:38AM
VinDAnZa said...Some people should not reproduce. Would you name a child after Osama bin Laden and not expect to be harassed and threatened? I wouldn't doubt if this sick couple turned out to be first cousins. Why didn't the school contact anyone about these racist people? As a teacher I wouldn't be comfortable calling out the Natzi kids names all day. Thumbs up to the Shoprite for holding their ground and refusing to put the name on a cake.
1-15-2009 @ 10:17AM
MIchelle said...I would and do find t hose names to be very offensive. I wo uld not put those names on any kind of cake much less name my children after those kind of people..no matter who they were and what they did...which was horrible. I am from a Jewish family, and several of them on my mothers and fathers side died at the hands of these SOB's..even though my parents had the lucky chance to be born in the US. My grand father on my dad's side was from Russia, he came to the US in the early 20th century to make enough money to get his family here..but by the time he did..a man by the name of Adolph EIchman, one of HItler's top people took them away and had them killed. Adolph Eichman was a nazi and captured and executed in Israel. My granfather recalled long before he passed on, reading the newspaper a week or so after the war had ended, and saw the headlines: 6 Million or more Executed! All of his family, friends, teachers. loved ones...gone and burned up! These people who name their kids like that should be shot at dawn! I wish I could see it. Israel is having a great deal of trouble trying to stand on her own against a world of people that hate the Jews. THis hatred has GOT TO STOP!! It does not matter weather you are Jew, Black, Mexican, or Asian or even from Mars...:) we are all people..and everybody has special qualitites. I am now a Mormon convert because of my husband and where I reside. But I am still proud of my own people and stand by them! No, I think I would have CPS remeove these kids for good from parents like that...something is very wrong with their minds. It is people like this that are dangerious! These kids are going to need alot of therapy before they will one day be able to see and understand the realities of these issues and what has happened. God bless the little kids!
1-15-2009 @ 7:19PM
Ismael Burgos said...A name is a name, not a reflection of the individual. People will act and behave the way they are raised not how they are named. If people believe that a name will affect the kids personality then lets name all boys Jesus and all girls Mary. By the way, there is a lastname Satan (pronouce SatAn); should we remove all kids with this lastname from their parents?
1-15-2009 @ 10:34AM
rmajdi said...Isn't this America? Aren't we allowed to name our kid whatever we want? People name kids after hundreds of weird things. Who cares if he is named Hitler, it is JUST A NAME. People who judge people by stupid things like that need to shut up. If the kid decides he wants to change it when he is older he can! Leave the poor kid alone, it is the public who are making things hard and different for the poor kid. His life will be screwed up by judgmental and critisizing people not because of his parents naming him after a historical figure.
1-15-2009 @ 10:36AM
dapa4tune said...I also agree that these parents are morons for naming their kids like this and obviously their ideology is horrific. But the problem I have is that this is a slippery slope to go down and if the kids are not being neglected or abused, they have the right as AMERICANS to raise their children how they see fit. As Americans we need to take the good with the bad as a FREE society and I don't see these kids being kept from their parents for their names. Ironically, this is what a Nazi society would do!!! Again, please understand that I do not support the beliefs of these people only the RIGHT for them to have the beliefs in which they choose.
1-15-2009 @ 10:54AM
not hitler said...I do not have a prejudice bone in my body.PERIOD.
That out of the way. This is such a sad commentary on the erosion of our freedoms in this country. However I do not agree with names of these children, If it turns out the reason for removing these children was solely on an objectionable name I find that a little scary.
As ill advised as these names may be, how does this quantify poor parenting skills. Who's to say that the parents are not loving and caring parents providing an otherwise solid moral platform for these children.
I guess the question of how they where ever allowed to name these kids legally with such objectionable names should be raised. I suspect the sensational atmosphere surrounding this case may have some bearing on all this.
I believe this is government intrusion motivated by media sensationalism.
Don't worry about the parents. We all know what happens when daddy names his boy Sue.