No really, this guys name is: Fuk King Kwok

Fuk King Kwok was waiting for his driver's license to be printed when his name was called and a chuckling Illinois secretary of state employee offered some advice.

"She [said] this is a dangerous name," the Chinese immigrant recalled. "She [said] the name translated is not so good, maybe I should change [it]. The word I hear is not so good."

That clerk, like so many other Americans who have said his name since he came to Chicago in 1999, didn't pronounce his first name the proper way -- "fook."

Instead, she and the others would pronounce his name with an "uh" sound instead of the "oo" -- in other words, like the granddaddy of all swear words.

Last month in Cook County Circuit Court -- three years after that clerk offered the advice -- Fuk King Kwok changed his name. He's now Andy Kwok.

"Before I came to United States, no problems," he said, before nervously laughing. "But in translation to English, it sounds like . . . the word . . . you know ... sometimes language is not so convenient and sometimes I'm embarrassed, you know?"

So what’d he do? He got his name legally changed. The process of legally changing your name is simple enough. Kwok paid the $328 and filled out the one-page form himself.

A judge's signature made it official and ensured the only time Kwok will hear that word is if he's near someone foul-mouthed.

After laughing at this poor guys misfortune of hearing people laugh day after day when hearing his name, I raised an eyebrow to the fact it only costs $328 to get your name changed. Then I also thought… why should it be expensive to get your name changed? I guess you just figure that to get your name changed, you would have to ‘jump through a lot of hoops’ and paperwork. I guessed wrong. Article here.