‘NOBODY BELIEVES MY SURNAME IS KORONA...’
Jimmy has to show ID to prove it’s right
A DAD with the surname Korona says he has to constantly show his ID to prove he is not making his name up.
Jimmy Korona, aged 38, whose name is Polish, says he has no plans to change it but admits it has been a strange experience hearing his name everywhere.
The new dad – whose son Jimmy Joseph Korona was born on September 21 – says he also had to produce ID to doctors who thought his name was a joke.
Jimmy, whose partner is Lauren, said: “Nobody can believe my name is Korona with the coronavirus pandemic about.
“People down the pub come up and say that they can’t believe my name is Korona.
“Nobody believes me apart from those I’ve known for years. When I do say what my second name is, most people don’t believe me.
“So I show them my bank card or passport to prove that’s my name, and it’s always been my name.
“It feels weird hearing my name everywhere. It just feels dead strange hearing your name being said over and over.
“It’s a name that nobody else has really got, not like a Smith or a Davies, and now it’s all over the news, in all the papers and on the radio every day. It’s crazy!”
The Sentinel’s sister paper, the Daily Star report Jimmy’s surname comes from his grandfather Jozef Korona, who survived a concentration camp in Germany following the Second World War.
He said: “My grandad was in the concentration camps in Germany and after being rescued, he landed in Broadway, Meir, and married my nan. He was training to be a doctor and then when the war started. He was forced to work on a pig farm and survive off pig food whilst in the concentration camps.
“He survived the war and came to England to work in the mines in Meir and fell in love with my nan and that’s how we got our family name of Korona.
“He’s passed away now, God rest his soul, but I wouldn’t have this unique surname without him so I definitely wouldn’t change my name, even after all this!”
Jimmy says the company he works for get a lot of deliveries - and even delivery drivers think it’s a joke.
He said: “They ask if they’re having a laugh, and ‘are you taking the Michael?’
“And my company has to explain ‘no that’s his name, call him on this number’.
It’s crazy the amount of effort I have to go through just to prove my name is