A couple in Spain have started an online petition after officials refused to let them call their newborn son the Spanish word for Wolf.

The father, Nako Javierre, said in a letter with the petition that he and his wife Maria decided on the name because of "our love for this animal."

But he says the Fuenlabrada registry office in Madrid this month refused to accept the name because it could be "offensive" for their son.

They later said Lobo was a surname in Spanish and could cause confusion.

The parents noted that the name is acceptable in other countries and hope to use the petition to back their argument in court.

The petition had just over 2,000 supporters on Thursday.

There was no immediate comment from officials.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.