Judges have issued a landmark ruling preventing a mother calling her baby daughter Cyanide because it was the poison that killed Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wanted to call her baby daughter 'Cyanide' - because that was the poison that killed Hitler.

The mother - who also chose the name 'Preacher' for the girl's twin brother - insisted that she had a human right to name her own children.

'Cyanide', she said, was a 'lovely, pretty name' and had positive connotations as the poison which ended the lives of both Hitler and Goebbels.

Judges in the Court of Appeal, pictured, made a landmark ruling to prevent a woman naming her child Cyanide

Lady Justice King, pictured, said that naming a little girl after a 'notorious poison' was simply unacceptable

But, in the first case of its kind, Appeal Court judges ruled that it was too 'extreme' and that the mother's 'unusual' choices might harm her children.

The twins, who are eight months' old, and two of their half-siblings are now living with foster parents - who call them 'Harrie' and 'Annie' - after they were removed from their mother's care.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? UK'S LIBERAL RULES Compared to the rest of Europe, the UK has fairly liberal rules on what you can and can't name a child. General Register Office rules say the only restrictions parents face are names that are deemed so offensive that a person responsible for registering it would refuse to do so. Therefore parents can, and do, call their children a variety of weird and wonderful names, from car makes like Mercedes and Porsche, to fictional characters like Gandalf and Superman, and even after football clubs. But countries including Iceland, Germany and Spain all publish lists of approved names from which parents can select. The most common reason for names being banned is Europe is to save a child potential future embarrassment, although it can also be down to causing confusion or to ensure they are gender specific. Many countries also ban children from having numbers in their names, such as when a New Zealand couple were prevented from calling their son '4real'. But in the UK numbers are permitted, with Queen Mary University of London's Prof Perri 6 being one of the most famous examples. Advertisement

When Powys County Council social workers learnt of the names the mother had chosen for the twins, they took the case to court in an unprecedented step.

And, in June last year, a judge issued an injunction against the mother, forbidding her from formally registering the twins' unorthodox forenames.

Her lawyers appealed, insisting that the refusal to let her name her own children violated her right to respect for family life.

But Lady Justice King, sitting with Lady Justice Gloster and Lord Justice David Richards, said that naming a little girl after a 'notorious poison' was simply unacceptable.

Although there was nothing seriously objectionable about the name 'Preacher', she ruled that both twins' names should be chosen by their older half-siblings.

The judge said that, 'even allowing for changes in taste, fashion and developing individual perception', 'Cyanide' was a very odd name to give to a baby girl.

The mother said 'Preacher' was a 'rather cool name' which sent a 'strong spiritual' message and which would 'stand my son well for the future'.

Cyanide, she said, was linked with flowers and plants and was 'responsible for killing Hitler and Goebbels and I consider that this was a good thing'.

Due to the impasse, it had been impossible to formally name the twins so their foster parents fell back on calling them 'Harry' and 'Annie' or just by 'terms of endearment'.

Lady Justice King said the courts would intervene to prevent a parent naming a child 'in only the most extreme cases'.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wanted to call her child Cyanide because it killed Nazis Adolf Hitler, left, and Joseph Goebbels, right

But she ruled: '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'.

While growing up, the girl would anyway 'have to come to terms with the fact' with the fact that her mother had tried to 'name her after a notorious poison'.

'Preacher', although unusual, was not as bad as 'Cyanide', but the judge ruled it was in both twins' interests that that names should be chosen by their half-siblings.

The mother has a chaotic history of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and relationships with abusive men, said Lady Justice King.