The Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior intervened Wednesday and urged people to think carefully before changing their name after a wave of signups.
Under the country’s naming law, people are only entitled to this three times, which means that in theory someone could get stuck by the name.
According to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency (CNA), nearly 100 people have registered to change their names as part of a campaign by the restaurant chain Sushiro, which will run until the end of Thursday.
On Monday, the chain announced that it would give away free sushi to anyone whose name contains the characters 鮭 and 魚 – which CNA said together means ‘salmon’ in Chinese, a key ingredient of the delicacy.
That person, plus up to five guests, can get a meal for free – as long as they prove the name change with official ID.
In a Facebook post, Sushiro said it would also offer lower discounts to anyone who added just one of those Chinese characters to their name as part of the promotion, CNA said.
The move caused a storm of name changes at household registry offices in Taiwan, according to CNA.
CNA reported that a man who changed his name on Wednesday told officials he intended to change the name back once he took advantage of the promotion.
Another registry said it managed to stop another man from changing it completely, while a third said another man went ahead with an official name change to “salmon,” despite having his name once before. changed.