T

he father of Ihsan Hadi, a noodle seller in Tangerang who recently changed his name from Kentut, which translates to “Fart”, has explained the story behind his son’s unusual former name.

Ihsan’s father, Larno, told tempo.co in Javanese that it was the grandfather of his wife, Sakiyem, who gave the name to their firstborn.

“[Ihsan’s] great grandfather didn’t mean kentut [as in fart],” the 53-year-old said on Monday.

Larno admitted that he did not know the actual meaning of his son’s name. He said it was the habit of Javanese elders to call a baby boy “Thut”, short for “Kenthut”, and that kentut and kenthut had different meanings.

The difference in pronunciation between kenthut and kentut is similar to difference between “three” and “tree” in English.

Larno blamed Ihsan’s elementary school administration for allegedly misspelling his son’s name as “Kentut” on a school certificate.

The head of Javanese literature at the University of Indonesia, Dwi Puspitorini, said that both kenthut and kentut were in the Javanese dictionary.

According to the Javanese-English Dictionary composed by Stuart Robson and Singgih Wibisono, kenthut means “muscular” or “strong”.

“The meaning of the word kenthut is actually good,” Dwi told tempo.co on Monday.

However, Ihsan’s great grandfather’s wish to make him strong by naming him Kenthut generated negative feedback 30 years later because of someone’s spelling mistake.

On Monday, Kentut officially became Ihsan Hadi. Judge Elly Istianawati, who presided over the case at Tangerang District Court, read out the verdict to which Ihsan responded by performing sujud syukur (prostration of thankfulness) several times in the courtroom.