More than half of the nearly 300 people who changed their name to include “salmon” (guiyu, 鮭魚) to get free or discounted meals at a Japanese sushi restaurant earlier this week had changed their names back as of Friday, government data showed.
After the restaurant on Wednesday and Thursday offered free meals and discounts to people whose names contained “salmon,” or those with homophonic names or characters, 298 people applied at household registration offices to change their names.
Among them, one person in New Taipei City set a record by using a name with 50 characters.
Photo: CNA
A student at National Taichung University of Science and Technology changed his name to “Chou Shih-en feels salmon soup really tastes good” (周士恩覺得鮭魚湯豪豪喝).
After he received three free meals worth NT$7,000 (US$245.93), he donated NT$10,000 to five social welfare groups, Chou said, adding that seeing his new name on the donation receipts made him feel good.
As of Friday, 159 people who changed their names for the promotion had reverted to their original names, Department of Household Registration data showed.
The restaurant said it attracted nearly 1,000 people named after salmon in two days.
With every free meal costing NT$5,000 to NT$6,000, the restaurant had absorbed NT$5 million to NT$6 million in costs, it said.
After the name-changing craze attracted media attention, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee De-wei (李德維) during a plenary session on Friday proposed that before a name change application takes effect, there should be a buffer period of two weeks or one month, so that people can think carefully before going through with it.
People should be prevented from changing their names again for three years, to prevent wasting administrative resources, Lee said during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan.
The Constitution protects people’s right to change their name, while regulations only allow a person to change their name three times, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said in response, but added that Lee’s proposals could be considered.
Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that before the restaurant marketed the offer, there were already 10 people named after salmon.
Hsu advised people not to change their names randomly, as it could be troublesome to correct official documents, such as graduation certificates.
Additional reporting by Tsai Shu-yuan, Hung Rui-chin, Chien Hui-ru and Yang Ya-min
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