TAIPEI • A top Taiwanese official has issued a plea for people to stop changing their names to "salmon" after dozens made the unusual move to take advantage of a restaurant promotion.

In a phenomenon that has been dubbed "Salmon chaos" by local media, around 150 mostly young people flocked to government offices in recent days to officially register a change in their names.

The cause of this sudden enthusiasm was a chain of sushi restaurants.

Under the two-day promotion that ended yesterday, any customer whose ID card contained "gui yu" - the Chinese characters for salmon - would be entitled to an eat-all-you-can sushi meal along with five friends.

Taiwan allows people to officially change their name up to three times.

But Taiwanese officials were not amused this time round.

"This kind of name change not only wastes time, but also causes unnecessary paperwork," Deputy Interior Minister Chen Tsung-yen told reporters yesterday as he urged the public to "cherish administrative resources".

"I hope everyone can be more rational about it," he said.

Local media ran interviews with people who took advantage of the promotion.

"I just changed my name this morning to add the characters 'Bao Cheng Gui Yu' and we already ate more than NT$7,000 (S$330)," a college student surnamed Ma told TVBS news channel in southern Kaohsiung city.

Roughly translated, the student's new moniker means: "Explosive Good Looking Salmon".

"I've changed my first name to salmon and two of my friends also did," a woman surnamed Tung told SET TV. "We'll just change our names back afterwards."

Other salmon-themed names reported in local media included "Salmon Prince", "Meteor Salmon King" and "Salmon Fried Rice".

The United Daily News reported that one resident decided to add a record 36 new characters to his name, most of them seafood-themed, including the characters for "abalone", "crab" and "lobster".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE