A Taiwan household registration office has rejected a women’s application to change her name to Hung Occult God of Wealth President, on the grounds that one’s name cannot contain ”president”.
The woman, in Nantou County, central Taiwan, recently applied to the Tsaotun Household Registration Office to change her name to Hung Hsuangong Caishen Zongtong, which means Hung God of Wealth Occult President.
”She was in her 30s. She did not tell us why she wanted to change her name,” Lin Chih-chun, an official from Tsaotun Household Registration Office, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
”We rejected her application because it contains the word ‘president’. We told her that the name is not suitable but she can appeal our rejection,” he said.
Under Taiwanese law, a citizen’s name must use Chinese characters listed in standard dictionaries. A citizen can change his or her name twice in a lifetime.
The Tsaotun Household Registration Office receives an average two to three applications to change names every day. Most of the applicants want to change their names to improve their fortune, usually at fortune-tellers’ advice. – Sapa-DPA