Vietnamese boy finally bids farewell to his name of two decades of ridicule
HANOI - A 19-year-old boy bids farewell to his weird name after nearly two decades of ridicule.
His father has agreed to change the son's name from "Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred" - the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy.
The son, now 19, is now Mai Hoang Long, which means "Golden Dragon."
Angry he was being fined for having a fifth child, Mai Xuan Can in 1987 named his son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi after the amount he was forced to pay the equivalent of 60 cents Cdn, said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.
In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because classmates constantly teased the boy at school in central Quang Nam province.
But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said.
They appealled to him again recently, and this time it worked.
"I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name - not that weird name - and he finally agreed," Thuong said.
Vietnam, with a population of 83 million, applied tight family planning measures until recently to keep couples from having more than two children. Breaking the rules could have resulted in punishment. Today's policy is less stringent, though the government continues to encourage small families.
The Associated Press - July 7, 2006.
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