A 25-year-old from Mérida, Yucatán, won a contest held by a local pizzeria for the strangest name in the city: Cero Cero Tres — or Zero Zero Three — Miler Santos.
“My cousin was the one who encouraged me to participate and share my curious name,” said Cero Cero Tres in an interview with El Universal.
“I read in the comments that many people didn’t believe me, so I decided to show photos [and] documentation of my identity.”
The numbered name won out against other such rarities as Vercingétorix, Baninu, Nívea, Marcio and others.
After providing proof to the pizzamakers that his name really is as strange as they consider it to be, Cero Cero Tres was awarded two pizzas, one in the shape of his name: 003.
He said that the name came from an agreement between his parents.
“My parents wanted to have three children, and that’s where ‘003’ comes from. I’m the three and my siblings are the zeros, but they don’t have their names in numbers, they have common names,” he said.
Cero Cero Tres said that he was bullied by some as a teenager, but many at his preparatory school actually asked for his autograph.
In the United States, where he grew up, his family called him Bambino, which he thought was his name until he became a teenager. It wasn’t until they moved back to Yucatán that he found out what his real name is.
“They told me that since I was 15 years old I should be responsible for my own paperwork. So when I looked at my birth certificate I saw the numbers and I asked my dad what it meant. Then he said ‘That’s your name,’ and I was surprised.”
The only time the numbers gave him a problem was when he went to apply for his voter’s registration card. He was told that he could not register with numbers, so his official name on the ballot is Cero Cero Tres.
“I felt like people bullied me for my name [in the past], but with time I really learned that it is part of my identity. It’s given me so many anecdotes and such good friends that I really am not ashamed to say that it’s my name,” he said.
Source: El Universal (sp)
