French couple can keep tilde in son's name after court battle

The row over Fanch or Fanch was settled after the parents' two-year tussle with officials

A two-year French legal battle over an orthographic squiggle has ended in victory for a couple granted the right to write their infant son's Breton first name as Fanch instead of Fanch.

The country's highest court for criminal and civil cases threw out an appeal bid by the authorities of Rennes, the capital of the north-western Brittany region, against an earlier ruling in favour of the family of Fanch Bernard.