The 40-year-old Sudanese Muammar Gaddafi who lives in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates is trying to change his name “in solidarity with the Libyans whose blood was shed” during an uprising against the Libyan leader, Arabic daily Emarat Alyoum reported.

The Sudanese man who said his father has named him after Gaddafi, “one year following his (the Libyan leader’s) revolt against the king’s rule” has begun with “the legal measures needed to change his name,” said the daily.

“I was proud of the name and I even used to copy Gaddafi’s hairstyle... but after what happened, especially when he described his people as ‘rats’, and started facing peaceful protesters with planes and tanks... this made me feel that the name has become a curse I should get rid of,” the daily quoted the namesake as saying.

Gaddafi last week urged his supporters to rally and help “capture the rats,” as he termed anti-regime demonstrators

Rights groups say at least 1,000 people have been killed in Libya in a brutal crackdown by forces loyal to Gaddafi on pro-democracy demonstrators who took to the streets nearly two weeks ago in the wake of upheavals in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia.