A Tainan taxi driver is the Taiwanese with the longest name, after he last month changed it so that it now contains 25 characters, the Anping District Household Registration Office said.
The 47-year-old man, formerly known as Huang Hsin-hsiang (黃鑫翔), applied for the name change on Feb. 26, in the hope that it would bring him good luck.
His new name starts with Huang Da-lan (黃大嵐) and adds another 22 characters, meaning “Huang Da-lan is the blessed darling and sweetheart of the god of joy, god of wealth, god of misfortune, god of Earth and all the gods,” it said.
With his new name, Huang surpassed the former holder of Taiwan’s longest name, a YouTube personality who adopted a 19-character name in May last year in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港).
Huang, a devout Taoist, said he hopes that the new name would bring him luck.
He included pleas to multiple deities in his new name, including the god of misfortune, in the belief that people must accept life’s highs and lows in good faith.
However, he would use Huang Da-lan in daily life and on social media, as this is more comfortable for his friends, who can also continue addressing him as “Old Huang,” he said.
People can legally change their name up to three times, meaning that Huang could change his name two more times if he ever considers it too long.
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