If things had turned out differently, Augustus Cho might be on the ballot under a different name.
The Chapel Hill Republican, who hopes to face off against U.S. Rep. David Price in the fall, was born Sung-uk Cho in Seoul, Korea.
He was renamed Sung-uk Park when his mother remarried. But Cho told Dome he was never close to his stepfather and did not like his new last name.
(As a side note, Korean women typically don't take their husband's last names, but it is prevalent among Korean-Americans.)
In 1991, Cho's mother passed away and his son was born. He said both events caused him to reflect on his last name, and he eventually had it legally changed back to Cho.
Then, in 1999, he adopted the nickname Augustus, after his interest in Roman history and his birth month, because some people had difficulty pronouncing his name.
"Trying to tell people my name was Sung-uk was very difficult," he said.
He's not the only candidate in the race with a nickname, though. His Republican opponent, B.J. Lawson, is actually named William Thomas Lawson Jr.
