Dutch man makes ex give birth in Belgium to call their baby "Feyenoord"

With reporting by Zack Newmark.

One Feyenoord fan went the extra mile to show his dedication to his favorite football club. He had his now-ex give birth in Belgium, so that he could name his son Feyenoord, the father said on Qmusic on Wednesday.

"My son's name is Brian Feyenoord," he said, according to RTL Nieuws. "The only problem was that it is not allowed in the Netherlands. At the time, my ex had to go to Belgium to deliver there."

The bordering country has a different set of rules that determine which given names are permissible, but once assigned the Netherlands had to respect the name as it was logged in the Belgian birth registry.

When asked why he would insist on his son being named after the Rotterdam football club, he explained: "At the time that my oldest son was born, Leonardo [Santiago] played at Feyenoord. And many guys I know gave their sons the name Leonardo. And what happens? The buffoon quickly leaves to play for [Ajax]. But your son's name is still Leonardo. Do you understand? I thought: 'That's not going to happen to me.'"

He said his oldest son is also the young fan famously photographed in 2002 wearing Feyenoord garb, shouting, with his middle finger raised during a match.

https://twitter.com/Gers89_/status/635205568597229568

Separately, there has been an increase of over 20 percent in the number of Dutch people who file a request to change their first name since 2015. Some 608 people wanted to change their first name in 2018, up from 576 the previous year, and 503 in 2015. Over two thousand changed their surname in 2018, a 60 percent jump from the total of 2012.

However, a 69-year-old man was denied his request to legally change his age because he self-identifies as being 20 years younger. The man claimed he faced age discrimination by losing out on jobs and dates because of his advancing age.