Marine pledges to adopt name from highest bidder

A US marine is auctioning off the right to give him a new name and has promised to use it, however bizarre it is.

Sergeant Cody Baker has pledged to legally adopt the moniker suggested by the highest bidder in a scheme to raise cash to support his family when he goes to university and help an orphanage in Thailand.

So far the top bid on his website, www.choosemyname.com, is for $26,333.31 (€21,000) and would see him renamed with the advertising slogan “Finest Freshest Fastest“.

It came from online coffee shop cupojoeonline.com.

Sgt Baker, 29, from Alabama, will take on his new name at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Earlier suggestions included Mr MyFatRobot.com, Oprah Winfrey, King Taco and a $15 (€12) attempt to call him Vanilla Ice.

The first bid, $5 (€4) for Mr Clean, came from Kyle MacDonald, the man who hit the headlines by using a website to trade a red paper clip for a house.

“I’ve always thought about different cool inventions and neat ideas like this,” Sgt Baker, who was most recently stationed in Japan, said.

“It’s just the way my mind works.”

The money will help support his wife and young son while he goes to college after leaving the Marines in 18 months.

Some of the proceeds are also earmarked for Im Jai House, an orphanage in Thailand.

A Marines spokesman at the unit he is set to join next said: “Whatever his name is, we’ll put him to work doing what the Marine Corps does best: accomplishing missions.”