Meet Kyle Joseph Campbell. Just call him Original Kreeam Shabazz.

Campbell of Mariners Harbor recently tried for a second time to change his name legally, a year after his first choice, Black Cream Allah, was denied by a judge on the grounds it resembled a rap song title and was sacrilegious.

"I was [upset], but when I sat down and thought about it, I understood why he did it," said Campbell, 29, who has belonged to an offshoot of the Nation of Islam since he was 19. "Black Cream -- in my nation that's a real strong name. But someone else sees the name and they might take that as funny, like I'm a joke."

Campbell is a "five percenter," meaning he belongs to the Nation of Islam-affiliated religion that purports man is God personified, and in which members commonly take Allah as a name. His was one of more than 100 name-change petitions filed on Staten Island last year, most of which were mundane and nearly all approved.

Supervising Judge Philip S. Straniere of Civil Court, West Brighton, the jurist in Campbell's first attempt, ruled July 28 that Black Cream Allah was offensive because the first two words are the title of a Ghostface Killah rap song with violent lyrics, and that allowing Allah as a name would be akin to bestowing religious authority.

"Generally speaking, name changes are routine -- courts will generally go along with it, but it still requires a judge's signature, so the judge has some discretion," said Daniel Leddy, a former Staten Island Family Court judge who is an Advance columnist. "As long as it's not fraudulent, a person can change their name to whatever they want."

Straniere declined to comment, either on last year's decision or on whether Campbell's second choice -- with Shabazz, the name of the "original tribe," in place of Allah -- would fare better.

Taking the name Allah has certainly been done before.

Five Percent Nation founder Clarence Smith adopted the name after surviving a 1964 shooting. A quick check of public records shows at least a half-dozen in New York City alone -- including Black Buddha Allah in Queens (although it could not be determined if that was a legal name change).

But it's not something a mainstream Muslim would do, said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Even names that include the qualities ascribed to the deity, such as "the merciful," are always prefaced by the abdullah, the Arabic word for "servant of," out of respect.

"It would be like changing your name to God," Hooper said this week. "It really is in some sense up to him. It's a free country."

At any rate, the man who would be called Black Cream Allah has moved on.

His religion, also known as the Nation of Gods and Earths, rejects a mystical deity and was popularized by the Wu-Tang Clan and others during the 1990s.

It draws its name from the belief that an elite 10 percent of people control 85 percent of humanity through the false belief in a mystical being, while the enlightened 5 percent are tasked with spreading knowledge.

Campbell, who grew up dealing drugs out of the West Brighton Houses and was busted with a Mac-11 machine gun at age 17, joined the movement after his release from prison for weapon possession.

He seems to care less about the faith than its effects on his life: He rose from the deli at a Western Beef supermarket to assistant manager in a year, is taking care of his three children, and hopes one day to start a nonprofit youth organization.

"It teaches you to do better for yourself. I learned to control my temper, to be disciplined and to speak better," he said. "I'm into progress. I like to go forward."

A decision on the new name should take about two weeks.

--- Contributed by Phil Helsel