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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- After nearly two decades of ridicule, a Vietnamese father has agreed to change his son's name from "Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred."

The unfortunate moniker, translated from Vietnamese, represents the 6,500 dong, the local currency, that Mai Xuan Can was forced to pay for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy.

In a fit of anger, Can in 1987 named his newborn son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi, said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.

In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because classmates constantly teased the boy at school in central Quang Nam province.

But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said.

They appealed to him again recently, and this time it worked.

"I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name -- not that weird name -- and he finally agreed," Thuong said.

The son, now 19, is now Mai Hoang Long, which means "Golden Dragon."

Vietnam, with a population of 83 million, applied tight family planning measures until recently to keep couples from having more than two children.

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