Ukrainian Citizen Changes His Last Name to Bush

Arnold Schwarznegger is the name of a man, who lives in the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine. As it was informed by the Ukrainian Justice Ministry, a man named Putin appeared in the Lugansk region of the country, while the Lvov region has someone, who is named Klitschko (in honor of a famous boxer). A resident of the Ternopol region changed his last name to Bush.

At the same time, a resident of the Lvov region of Ukraine wished to change his last name to Kuchma – the name of the incumbent Ukrainian president. However, internal affairs bodies turned the request down. There were 25 956 Ukrainian citizens, who wished to change their names in the year 2002. This is the official information of the Justice Ministry of Ukraine. Most often people decide to do such thing on account of the fact that their original names sound either funny or they are very hard to pronounce. For example, people changed such names as Kozel (Goat), Mogila (Grave), Krysko (Ratty), Durakov (Dumbo) , Vyrvykhvost (can be translated as ‘pull out a tail’) and many others.

In addition to that, twelve people of the Caucasian nationality changed their last names to Ukrainian ones. This tendency is typical for other regions of the country as well. Ukrainian names are basically changed to German, Italian, Jewish and English ones. Ukrainians like to become Laurita, Tatiana-Sara, Liona, Sabrina, Samantha, Isabella, Radmila, Zigminda. Some people change their names in honor of their favorite soap operas. A resident was incredibly impressed with Harry Potter’s adventures, so now his name is Potter Harry Zakh. A Kiev female resident named Olga changed her name twice in 2002: at first she became Ollga and then Olilga. Two female residents of the Lugansk region changed their last names to Romanov. It is interesting that the women did not know each other at all. Sometimes, civil status employees talk people out of their intention to change their names. For example, they convinced a man not to become Sekretov Sekret Sekretovich.

Ukrainian Justice Minister Alexander Lavrinovich reminded that changing names is absolutely legal in Ukraine. Any Ukrainian citizen of 16 years of age and older, is entitled to go to the adequate civil status department and to submit his or her application on that.