Singer Kangnam attempted to change his name four years after naturalization.
The video titled "Kangnami in the fourth year of naturalization in Korea finally decides to change his name!? Receiving a new name from three fortune-telling houses — the name even shows that...?" released on the YouTube channel 'Dongne Chingu Kangnami' on the evening of the 4th captured Kangnam attempting to change his name.
At the time of filming, Kangnam had not yet undergone the nose surgery that had drawn attention. Before that, Kangnam visited his agency office to carry out the long-delayed name change. Although he debuted as a singer in Korea 15 years ago and is in his fourth year since naturalization, his legal name was still Namekawa Yasuo.
Regarding this, he said, "There were many things under that name in Japan. My credit card, point cards, everything was under 'Namekawa Yasuo'," citing the complicated procedures after a name change as the main reason he hadn't changed it until now. He added, "Also, when I naturalized it was after COVID-19 so I couldn't travel much between Japan and Korea," and "The name Yasuo wasn't a good name either. When I went to PC bangs people cursed at me, really abused me so badly that I quit League of Legends at that time," he said.
Above all, when the production staff said, "It's really hard to search for hyung's name," Kangnam agreed, saying, "That's right," and vented. He said, "If you search 'Gangnam' you'll always first get 'Gangnam restaurants', 'Gangnam date courses.' No matter how aggressively I do variety shows, the next day the 'Gangnam' district comes up," he said.
He even mentioned his wife, saying, "So when I search myself I just search 'Lee Sang-hwa'," referring to his wife Lee Sang-hwa. Kangnam raised curiosity by explaining the surname he would use after the name change, saying, "I'm thinking of making Sang-hwa's surname Lee. Doesn't it still feel like Kangnam went into Sang-hwa? If not Lee, then my mother's surname Kwon. I don't know which is right. If I create something like 'Yongsan the-ssi' then I'd become an ancestor, so I plan to have my saju (four pillars) read," he explained.
Kangnam married former speed skater Lee Sang-hwa in 2019. After their marriage, he passed the naturalization exam in 2022 and officially changed his nationality from Japanese to Korean.
[Photo] YouTube source.
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