Devoted “Chuck” fan, Douglas Allen Smith Jr. has officially changed his name to Captain Awesome. Smith now introduces himself by the first name ‘Captain’ and the last name ‘Awesome’, according to The Register-Guard.
Smith was inspired to make the switch after watching NBC’s “Chuck,” in which the title character refers to his brother in law, Devon Woodcomb, as Captain Awesome.
“I just thought it was really funny that Devon’s father always called him Captain Awesome because ‘a poor nickname builds good character,'” he tells the paper.
The out-of-work cabinet installer was forced to jump through several legal hoops because the first judge who reviewed his application thought it was a joke.
The judge advised him to hire an attorney to make a formal oral argument for the change. But just because he’s Awesome, he studied up on name change precedents and decided to go it alone.
However, as luck would have it, he landed a judge with the same first name as him, Douglas.
“The first thing he said to me was that he thought Douglas was a perfectly honorable first name,” explains Awesome. “I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, ‘I’m screwed.'”
But, much to his surprise, the judge simply made him raise his right hand, swear that he wasn’t changing his name for fraudulent reasons, and proclaimed him Captain Awesome.
He was also allowed to change his official signature to a right-pointing arrow, a smiley face and a left-pointing arrow.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles accepted the fun signature. But his bank rejected it as being too easily “forgeable.”