We all laughed a little about the absolute clownery behind Chad Ochocinco née Johnson’s legal name change in 2008. Of course, it was a little more serious in 2006 when he wore the name on his jersey without official consent from team owners and the NFL. In the years since his official name change, Ochocinco has put fans through a whirlwind of declarations, including changing his name back to its original form and using the Japanese words for “eight” and “five” to supplement a new name change.
While Ochocinco is not the only athlete known for some strange name changes—don’t forget, back in June, Ron Artest decided to go for Metta World Peace—he is rather over the top with the number of times he comments about making changes. Which is perhaps a reason why we could not take Ochocinco seriously this time around.
He is getting married in July to Basketball Wives star Evelyn Lozada (who used to be in a relationship with basketball player Antoine Walker). The Patriots player plans to change his name before the couple gets married in Florida. According to TMZ, the change is coming because Ochocinco “doesn’t want his wife to have a made-up last name.” If all goes according to plan, Ochocinco will again be known as Chad Johnson, which is certainly more of a boring last name, but one that is better than a name that simply means two different numbers in Spanish. Fingers crossed Ochocinco will actually get around to making the change this time.
