Picking out baby names is a difficult task, especially if parents want to make sure their children have unique names. And sometimes they succeed, and other times they succeed but go viral. That’s the case for the parents of a young man from Paraguay, who ended up with a Transformers-inspired name.
Optimosprayn Ismael Meza Barboza, 19, has been placed in quite interesting situations because of his name, chosen by his father. First days of school were particularly messy. “I remember that always the first day of school was a show every year,” he told Crónica. “When I was in the sixth grade, the teacher asked all students to introduce themselves by their first and last names. So I, because I was worried that my classmates would laugh at me, introduced myself only as Ismael Meza.”
But it didn’t work, because the teacher asked if he had another name and last name, as is the custom in Latin America. “‘Yes,’ I told her and I said that my name was Optimosprayn Ismael Meza Barboza. She asked me if I thought she had cara de payaso, and she said I was making fun of her and she threw me out of the class.”
He’s also had some trouble with police because of his name. When he handed them his ID, which has gone viral, an officer thought he was pranking them.
He ended up with the name Optimosprayn because of his dad’s love for anime. His dad watched Mazinger Z, and then Transformers when it made its way to Paraguay. When his parents were expecting him, they had different thoughts on what their son’s first name should be. “My mom wanted my name to be Chayanne and my dad Optimosprayn,” he said. “So he told her that he would choose the first name and that my mom would choose the second. Thankfully, she gave me my grandfather’s name.”
Check out Crónica’s interview with him below.