Parents defend naming baby Lucifer despite freaky hospital coincidence

A couple has defended naming their son Lucifer, despite online backlash over its connotations.

By: irishmirror.ie

Jan 11 2025
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Parents defend naming baby Luc

A couple is standing by their decision to name their newborn son Lucifer, despite facing a barrage of social media backlash over the name's controversial connotations.

Jess Bell and Stefan Wake welcomed baby Lucifer at 12.55pm on New Year's Day, weighing 7lbs 11oz at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

They explained that the name, which means "light bringer", holds personal significance for them and is not meant to evoke any association with the devil.

Things took a bizarre turn after their son's birth, when a series of strange coincidences happened at the hospital - Lucifer was born in delivery room 6, and both mother and child were then moved to bed 6 in room 6.

Stefan, aged 27, explained: "We came up with the name as soon as we realised Jess was pregnant, so it didn't influence our decision - although the 666 was a fairly strange coincidence."

After Lucifer's birth, the couple from North Yorkshire found themselves the subject of online trolling after the hospital included their son in a roundup of New Year's babies. The backlash was so severe that the hospital had to intervene and request that negative comments be removed from Facebook.

Jess, aged 25, told The Northern Echo: "It has mostly been people from the older generation who have told us: 'You can't call him that, what will it be like when he's at school?' But we are just normal loving parents and certainly have no interest in associating our son with the devil, that's not what this is about."

Despite the online criticism, the couple insists their son is an angel who has been nothing but a joy. Jess continued: "He's the best-behaved baby you could ever wish for. After his bottle, he goes to sleep and you don't hear a peep out of him, we haven't had a single sleepless night, he's an angel, not a little devil."

The pair have defended the name's significance, especially in light of its meaning in the Bible, which refers to Lucifer as a beloved angel who fell from grace after becoming disillusioned with Earth’s suffering.

"It made us even more certain that the name didn't have really bad associations - it's not as if we called him Satan. We've loving parents and Lucifer is the most adored little boy. His big sister Juliet is also absolutely besotted with him," Jess said.

The name choice was influenced by the couple's love for the popular 2021 TV series Lucifer, but Jess revealed that some of the criticism has focused on their son’s middle name - Gary.

She said: "Someone even criticised his middle name - which is Gary after my uncle who died as a child. Both names really mean something to us and it's unfair for people to pass judgement on us."

Jess and Stefan, who met on Halloween three years ago in a hospital A&E department, are hoping to avoid any further complications when it comes to christening their son.

Stefan said: "There has been a case where a council refused to register a boy called Lucifer and we can only hope that doesn't happen to us. I've already asked the opinion of a vicar at a local church because we do want to have him christened.

"We explained why we chose Lucifer and what the name means literally and she was delighted we'd thought so carefully about the name. She said she would have no problem in baptising him at her church."

Before settling on the name, the couple researched the rules surrounding baby names. Jess explained: "In this country (the UK), there are no banned names, but the law does prevent you from using slang or obscene words. There's no way we would do something like that. It had been suggested we call him Romeo because his big sister is Juliet - but I think that would have been so much worse than Lucifer."

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