SOUTH Korea has shelved a plan to replace the English word for condom with a Korean word after a string of complaints from people with identical or similar sounding names.

The Korean Anti-AIDS Federation said it would drop the use of a suggested new word for condom, “ae-pil”, which was derived from the Chinese characters for love and necessity.

The name, picked from 19,000 suggestions sent in by the public, had prompted complaints from many South Koreans with similar-sounding characters in their names, federation official Kim Hoon-soo said.

“An old lady called to complain, saying she was worried about her grandson being teased due to her name being ‘condom’,” Kim said, adding the federation had dropped its push for a new name.

The federation promotes condom use in South Korea, where only 10 per cent of people use condoms when having sex.