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Comment by AlotOfReading

3 days ago

For many years, my mother's proper legal name on her birth certificate was the empty string. This wasn't usually a problem before computers as she'd go by a given name instead, even on government paperwork. She started having issues with systems being unable to process her information in the late 90s and early 2000s. Background checks would fail, passports couldn't be issued, and so on. She eventually had it changed, but I imagine it'd be even worse now.

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AlotOfReading

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protocolture  2 days ago

I have known 2 people with names so long they have the same issues.

One russian, one spanish. Both had like 20 individual names.

The problem is well meaning parents used all of them on early paperwork, and as things digitised, name fields gained field limits etc.

I believe one had his name changed formally, and the other had to register an alias, and had to dig out the OG paperwork regularly.

great_wubwub  3 days ago

There must be an interesting backstory here. Did her parents deliberately not name her? Did they forget?

  • AlotOfReading  3 days ago

    The hospital staff filled out most of the birth certificate, but left the name field blank when they gave my grandmother the paperwork to take home. She either didn't notice or didn't care (both possibilities are realistic) that the name field was blank and submitted it anyway. The state accepted it.

    My mother started filling out her own paperwork around elementary school because my grandmother created so many problems that school staff would simply give up.

  • sensanaty  2 days ago

    A high school teacher of mine didn't have a last name, only a first name. Problem was when she moved (from India) she had to have a last name because a bunch of systems and people assume a last name as a fact, so her full name is just her first name twice because she didn't want to think of a different one :p