The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a lawsuit, called the decision a victory for free expression, but a top official with the largest U.S. Muslim advocacy group criticized the choice to use the Arabic word for “God” as culturally insensitive.

ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah, who will soon turn 2, was born in Atlanta to parents Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk, who waited about a year before seeking a birth certificate for the child.

While they had no difficulties obtaining birth certificates for their older children, ages 3 and 17, who also have the surname “Allah,” a clerk for the Georgia Department of Health blocked the request for the youngest child.

Last month, the ACLU filed suit in state court against the leaders of the state department of health and the state office of vital records to compel them to allow the surname chosen by the parents, said Sean J. Young, legal director for the ACLU of Georgia.

Georgia law requires that clerks allow any name chosen by the parents as long as it is not provocative or offensive, Young said in a phone interview. The department relented on Friday, and the ACLU dropped the suit.

Nihad Awad, national director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that while many people have names that are derivations of Allah, such as Abdullah, which means “servant of God,” using “Allah” as a stand-alone surname was not culturally acceptable.

“You would never use just Allah. That would be considered very inappropriate,” Awad said in a phone interview.

Young said he did not know if the couple were Muslim but that he considered the question legally irrelevant.

Handy and Walk, who were not available for comment, live together in Atlanta and are expecting a fourth child, Young said.

“This is an important vindication of parental rights,” Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, said in a statement. “No one wants to live in a world where the government can dictate what you can and cannot name your child.”

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Health declined to comment on the matter.

A couple in the US state of Georgia who were banned from naming their daughter Allah are taking legal action.

The state Department of Public Health has refused to issue the 22-month-old with a birth certificate.

Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk say it is unacceptable that their child has officially been left nameless.

But state officials say the child’s surname – ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah – should either be Handy, Walk or a combination of the two.

Allah is the Arabic word for God.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia has filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court on the family’s behalf.

The girl’s father told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution they had called her Allah because it is “noble”.

“It is just plainly unfair and a violation of our rights,” Mr Walk said of the state’s refusal to acknowledge the name.

However, lawyers for the Department of Public Health said Georgia code “requires that a baby’s surname be either that of the father or the mother for purposes of the initial birth record”.

In a letter to the family, state officials wrote that ZalyKha’s surname can be changed through a petition to superior court, but only after the birth record is recognised.

‘Government overreach’

According to the lawsuit, the unmarried couple already have a young son called Masterful Mosirah Aly Allah.

The ACLU says that without a birth certificate the parents cannot obtain a Social Security number for their daughter.

They fear the girl’s identity and rights as a US citizen will be questioned.

The ACLU said the state’s refusal to grant the family’s wishes was an unconstitutional example of government overreach.

“The parents get to decide the name of the child,” said Michael Baumrind, a lawyer for the family. “Not the state. It is an easy case.”