Ochocinco Changing Name Again Back To Johnson

By: Pat Prescott
02/10/2012 10:09 AM ET

Chad Ochocinco is changing his name again and this time he’s going back to Johnson before he gets married this summer.

The NFL wide receiver made the Ochocinco name changing announcement on Twitter, but it’s an interesting story on why he created it in the first place.

Johnson’s jersey number in the NFL is 85 so, he decided to change his name to the Spanish reflection of it in 2008. He made it “Ocho” for 8 and “cinco” for 5, yet the proper way to say the number 85 in Spanish is “ochenta y cinco.”

He made the legal change as a jab at the NFL, mostly because of an incident that occurred during an on-field practice in October 2006 that clashed with the strict dress code policy of the NFL. In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, he came out to the field during warm-ups with the words Ocho and Cinco on the back of his jersey, before the game started he had quarterback Carson Palmer came over and ripped the name tag off the jersey to reveal the correct “C. Johnson.” The NFL was not amused, and fined him $5,000.

Though he legally had his name changed at the start of the 2008 season, due to contract obligations with Reebok, he did not start wearing Ochocinco on his jersey until 2009.

Now apparently he has plans to marry his girlfriend, “Basketball Wives” reality star, Evelyn Lozada, and wants to be married as Chad Johnson to avoid any issues, according to friends.

He plans on legally converting back to Johnson on July 4th according to his twitter announcement.

Source: Ochocinco Changing Name