Man Changes Name To 'Salmon Dream' Before Realising It's Permanent

A man in Taiwan changed his name to 'Salmon Dream' - only to realise he couldn't change it back.

First off, why? OK, well a sushi outlet had the fantastic idea of offering free all-you-can-eat meals for six, so long as one diner had 'gui yu' - the Chinese characters for salmon - in their name.

Presumably the chain thought it would just get people with those characters in their name making the most of the offer, but what's actually happened is more than 200 people have changed their name to incorporate salmon.

Pexels/cottonbro

One such person was a student at the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at China Medical University with the surname of Chang, according to Taiwan News.

However, he soon learnt that because this was his third name change, he wouldn't be able to change it back. All for a bit of salmon.

It is still possible that he could change his name back, but only if an elder relative has the same name as him, according to United Daily News. So basically, he needs to convince a parent to change their name to Salmon Dream - which could be a tough sell, given that he didn't tell them about the name change in the first place.

He's one of many to adopt a new salmony moniker to take advantage of the deal, which ran for just two days.

Ma, who is from the southern port city of Kaohsiung and majors in business management, used it to rake in around $2,000 (£1,441), before switching his name back.

He told NBC: "I have brought a lot of people to eat and charge them 30 percent of the original price.

"Besides that, I treat my best friends as well to return the favour since they have been really nice to me."

Pexels/cottonbro

The promotion and the ensuing name changing - dubbed 'salmon chaos' by local media - got so chaotic that deputy interior minister Chen Tsung-yen had to get involved.

He told reporters on Thursday: "This kind of name change not only wastes time but causes unnecessary paperwork.

"I hope everyone can be more rational about it."

Mr Salmon Dream is probably wishing he'd heeded this warning right about now. Hopefully the sushi was nice anyway.

Topics: Food, World News, Funny

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey