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Comment by nitnelave | Hacker News Reader

My wife's last name is only 2 letters long. Some websites don't accept that as it's too short (take that, Xi Jinping!)

Conversely, I've had to fill forms in Korea that included space for only 4 letters, including both first and last name. Needless to say, my 3 first names plus last name didn't fit.

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I knew someone with a one letter first name "J". Most times he would have to put "Jay" as his first name.

This caused big problems whenever he booked airlines tickets as the name on the ticket didn't match his ID.

When my father was born, his parents gave him a normal given name, but endowed his middle initial as only a single letter. They said, when he grew up he could choose whatever name fit that initial.

The initial happened to match his father's given name, and when he was old enough, he reliably chose to take that name as his middle name. It is certainly an endearing story of filial devotion, and a distinct lack of finicky SQL databases or web input validation in the 1950s.

> I knew someone with a one letter first name "J".

I wonder if we know the same guy. There can't be many Js running around.

Lives in LA?

Nope, unless he's moved and I don't know about it (haven't talked to him in a long time). Looks like there may be at least two Js running around!

My first and middle names are both relatively long - this caused me issues when getting a US SSN. On a UK passport they are both in the “Given Names” field - and both ended up on my I-94. This was too long when the person at the social security office tried to enter my details. They had to send it by mail to be processed which took something like 6 weeks…

In Hawaii, Mrs. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele finally got a proper driver's license.

Same in China, the amount of issues I’ve had at banks, airports etcwith 4 names is unbelievable

I have a legal name in Chinese. It is very weird to call people by full name so everyone picks their own English name. Nobody calls me anything other than the English name since I’m 10 year old or so except maybe from parents.

Moved to UK last year. Couldn’t put my English name in anywhere and had to use my full name. Feels super weird getting called so.

Same in Japan. My name is truncated on nearly every single form I receive from utilities companies. online forms will regularly limit your full name to 9 kana in total.

> My wife's last name is only 2 letters long. Some websites don't accept that as it's too short (take that, Xi Jinping!)

Could be apolitical protection against chess grandmasters: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_So ;)

The good news is that for most of those Korean forms the limitation/validation is only on the frontend, so a quick "inspect element" and some HTML editing solves it.

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