US parents sue to call baby girl Allah

A couple in the US state of Georgia who were banned 
from naming their daughter Allah are taking legal action.

The state Department of Public Health has refused to
 issue the 22-month-old with a birth certificate.

Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk say it is unacceptable that
 their child has officially been left nameless.

But state officials say the child's surname - ZalyKha 
Graceful Lorraina Allah - should either be Handy, Walk or 
a combination of the two.

Allah is the Arabic word for God.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia has 
filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court on the family's 
behalf.

The girl's father told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution they 
had called her Allah because it is "noble".

"It is just plainly unfair and a violation of our rights," Mr 
Walk said of the state's refusal to acknowledge the name.

However, lawyers for the Department of Public Health 
said Georgia code "requires that a baby's surname be
 either that of the father of the mother for purposes of the initial birth record".

In a letter to the family, state officials wrote that ZalyKha's
surname can be changed through a petition to superior 
court, but

only after the birth record is recognised.