Meet the Brissy legend who just legally changed his name to Max Power

How many of you have watched The Simpsons episode Homer To The Max and thought to yourself, 'Man, I would fucking love to change my name to Max Power'. Well meet the Brisbane dude formerly known as Yiannis Antonopoulos, who not only thought that, but actually bloody did it:

First up, nice to meet you Max Power and congratulations on the new name. Can you tell us what the initial impetus was for the name change?

Hi. Pretty sure it all started when I logged into Facebook one day and got served with a “You have X days to change your name or show proof of your current name”. At the time I had been using a nickname as my account name since maybe 2008ish. I was complaining to a friend of mine from South Australia, and he suggested I change my name. We decided on Max Power. After looking up the costs, he said he would donate if I started a campaign to pay for it.

That, and I got it off a hair dryer.

Checking the GoFundMe page for your ambitious proposal, it looks like it was a relatively pain-free process, with only a few donators required – were they friends or just random people who are awesome?

It was a little tedious at the start. As a spur of the moment decision, and on a time limit to get everything legally changed by the time Facebook would deactivate my account I had to get everything together.

I ended up raising the needed $179 in about two hours. Three of the donations were from close friends, and one from someone I didn’t know.

After reaching the goal (I hadn’t thought the costing through at the time), I ran into a few hurdles. Gofundme took their fee, which I didn’t factor into the pricing leaving me with $160ish. On top of that, there was the postage costs to send the application out and the return postage.

For some time, I couldn’t find my birth certificate so that nearly added another $50ish (I ended up finding it, after a week).

Then there was the processing time. In all, it took about 25 days from creating the Gofundme to receiving my new birth/change of name certificates.

Did you decide on Max Power because it was the only name you spelled correctly?

Close. I figured it was subtle enough to be seen as a generic name, but noticeable to those who understood the reference. It’s a name that gets better with age.

Do you think you’ll miss your previous name, or is that the end of that chapter?

Probably not. The way I see it, anyone who knows me as my old name (or nickname) will know me as those names. Doesn’t bother me.

What are you going to do with the hundred scarves that you no longer have any use for?

Didn’t really have that many, I much prefer tie.

Are you concerned about how your father and his father and his father’s mule will feel about this?

I had my mother’s name. I didn’t ask her what she thought about it.

Do you have a wife/girlfriend whose name you’ll be looking to change in the near future? If so, what to?

My suggestion was she should probably just keep her name when we get married, because it doesn’t really work without being Max, but there might be room for a hyphenated pun.

Have you developed a theme song yet?

Not yet. Maybe Goldfinger with modified lyrics?

Besides a life of hanging out with celebrities and ex-presidents, what does the future hold for Max Power?

Employment would be a great. Haven’t had much luck since the plant. Know anyone in Brisbane who needs an environmental/office-based software development person with a great name?

Thanks for your time Max, and congratulations on having a name we’d all love to touch.

No problem. But you mustn’t touch.

S/O Compulglobalhypermeganet - the ONLY Simpsons group on FB worth being a part of.