What's in a name?

MarkPDX · Jan 16, 2006

Name change should stop the snickers

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." Not so good, indeed. 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."........

............"And my middle name is terrible, too," he admitted. "That combination becomes very terrible." 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..............

.............The 38-year-old mechanical engineer said he came to the United States for work reasons and "to try to experience different culture." Despite the pronunciation trouble with his name, he said he likes America, especially Chicago, but most of all, he likes his privacy.
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What's in a name?

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