Overly Long Name / Real Life

People

Long strings of names

• It's common in many cultures to list the surnames or given names of preceding generations (usually gender specific) as part of an individual's name. Sometimes, the number of generations listed in a name can reach 10 or more, depending on the memory and traditions of a particular family.
  • Something that could make names even longer is the practice of adding the names of religious saints along with the given and surnames.
• The longest personal name ever recorded was that of Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe­schlegelstein­hausenberger­dorffvoraltern­waren­gewissenhaft­schaferswessen­schafewaren­wohlgepflege­und­sorgfaltigkeit­beschutzen­von­angreifen­durch­ihrraubgierigfeinde­welche­voraltern­zwolftausend­jahres­vorandieerscheinen­wander­ersteer­dem­enschderraumschiff­gebrauchlicht­als­sein­ursprung­von­kraftgestart­sein­lange­fahrt­hinzwischen­sternartigraum­auf­der­suchenach­diestern­welche­gehabt­bewohnbar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wohin­der­neurasse­von­verstandigmen­schlichkeit­konnte­fortplanzen­und­sicher­freuen­anlebens­langlich­freude­und­ruhe­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­angreifen­von­anderer­intelligent­geschopfs­von­hinzwischen­sternartigraum, Senior. That's almost 1000 characters. The long surname, which actually tells a story involving Ancient Astronauts, supposedly came from his great-grandfather, who came up with it when he was forced to adopt a surname. There's doubt on whether the 26 given names or the long surname were genuine, especially given the laughably poor German of the long surname which suggests it was thought up by a non-German speaker with access to a German-English dictionary. In daily life, he used the relatively shorter Hubert Blaine Wolfe­schlegel­stein­hausen­berger­dorff, Senior, which nevertheless often tripped up the computerized databases of the 1950s and 1960s which were short on space for his name. The full record-holding name was probably a goofy inside joke on his part. The name was listed in the Guinness World Records in the 1970s and 1980s, but their "Longest Name" category mysteriously vanished by 1990, probably due to the suspect veracity of the name.
• The director of The Lives of Others, Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck. His surname begins with Graf because he's descended from Counts. (Such titles are not legally recognized in Germany, so their heirs incorporate them in their surname. This will come up at least twice below.)
• Royals and nobility tend to have long strings of names. Some of the more prominent examples (titles are not names and have been omitted):
  • The full name of King Edward VIII of Britain (January-December 1936) was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor, presumably after Edward VII (his grandfather), Albert the Prince Consort (the latter's father), Christian IX of Denmark (his father's mother's father), and the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. His family just called him 'David'.
    • "Windsor" is normally omitted, because The House of Windsor (being a royal family) don't actually use a surname, the assumption presumably being that everybody already knows what family they're from. In situations where a surname is needed, such as the obligatory military service, British royals (and for that matter others with hereditary titles) normally use their highest title as if it were a surname, combined with only their first name. As such, during World War I, Edward (Prince of Wales at the time) would have gone by "Edward Wales". Those members of the House of Windsor who don't have the title of "Prince/Princess" (being great-grandchildren, or more distant, from a monarch or heir-apparent) are only ones who actually use the Windsor surname (or Mountbatten-Windsor, for those descended from Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip Mountbatten).
  • That bloke to whom Diana used to be married is actually named "Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor". Amusingly, Diana muddled his name at the wedding ceremony, reciting it as "Philip Charles Arthur George".
    • Mocked mercilessly in The Now Show's coverage of the Charles/Camilla wedding:
      Registry: Say after me. I, Charles Arthur Philip George [Charles repeats] Have more names than I really need [Charles repeats] And you only ever hear them at weddings [Charles repeats] And even then, someone usually gets them wrong.
      Charles: No wonder she thought there were three people in the marriage.
      Registry: Do you, Charles Arthur da-dee-da-dah whatever take Camilla Magilla Gorilla Driller Killer Bootzilla Cilla Britney Chardonnay Parker Knoll Recliner Bowles...^note Camilla's middle name is in fact the generally aristocratic but fairly short 'Rosemary'.
    • The "Charles Philip Arthur George" bit is fairly important: when he took the throne, Prince Charles was possibly faced with a tough choice: whether to use his name as his regnal name. This has little to do with his personal reputation; rather, it has to do with the historical associations of the phrase "King Charles". Knowing what Charles I and II were like, do we really want King Charles III? As for his other names, the last time Britain had a King Philip was the Spanish husband of the rather notorious Queen Mary, and calling himself King Arthur would likely be seen as rather presumptuous. The man himself had stated an inclination to be known as "George VII" when he took the throne (as the last couple of Georges^note Charles' grandfather and great-grandfather have been well-liked and generally respected). In the end, he decided to take his first name as his regnal name (whether he decided not to use George to allow his grandson to use it when his time comes is unknown).
    • Prince Charles apparently prefers to use "Mountbatten-Windsor" when the need arises (as opposed to the usual practice for a Prince of Wales, using "Wales" as a faux-surname), presumably out of affection for his parents.
  • France had Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette. Yanks just called him "Lafayette". He joked in his memoirs that because of his family's extensive history of fighting and dying in battle, he was named after every possible saint who might be able to protect him. Given that he managed to survive both the American and French revolutions, it seems it worked.
  • The full name of Pedro II of Brazil was Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga.
  • His father, Pedro I of Brazil/IV of Portugal, was worse: Pedro de Alcântara Francisco António João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim...
  • Empress Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina von Habsburg, the only woman to ever rule Austria, Hungary, and the other Habsburg dominions.
  • The kings of Saxony (a constituent kingdom of the German Empire), of the House of Wettin (of which the aforementioned House of Windsor was accounted a cadet branch from its establishment until the death of Elizabeth II^note Because for dynastic purposes, Lineage Comes from the Father, and in the male line the Windsors up until Elizabeth II descend from Prince Albert, who was from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha branch of the House of Wettin. Now that future British royals are descended in the male line from Prince Philip, the House is technically be accounted members of his House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, itself a cadet branch of the ancient House of Oldenburg.), with their regnal names in bold:
    • Friedrich August [I] Joseph Maria Anton Johann Nepomuk Aloys Xaver von Wettin
    • Anton Clemens Theodor Maria Joseph Johann Evangelista Johann Nepomuk Franz Xavier Aloys Januar von Wettin
    • Friedrich August [II] Albrecht Maria Clemens Joseph Vincenz Aloys Nepomuk Johann Baptista Nikolaus Raphael Peter Xaver Franz de Paula Venantius Felix von Wettin (!) - Yes, he really did have 20 names.
    • Johann Nepomuk Maria Joseph Anton Xaver Vincenz Aloys Franz de Paula Stanislaus Bernhard Paul Felix Damasus von Wettin
    • Friedrich August Albert Anton Ferdinand Joseph Karl Maria Baptist Nepomuk Wilhelm Xaver Georg Fidelis von Wettin
    • Friedrich August Georg Ludwig Wilhelm Maximilian Karl Maria Nepomuk Baptist Xaver Cyriacus Romanus von Wettin
    • Friedrich August [III] Johann Ludwig Karl Gustav Gregor Philipp von Wettin
  • The last crown prince of Austria Otto von Habsburg was born Franz Josef Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg. Later in life, he was forced by Austria to drop the von from his name, and his legal name was just Otto Habsburg-Lothringen.
  • Spanish royals tended to name their children after saints and, in one case, the parents went way overboard, naming their son Alfonso María Isabel Francisco Eugenio Gabriel Pedro Sebastián Pelayo Fernando Francisco de Paula Pío Miguel Rafael Juan José Joaquín Ana Zacarias Elisabeth Simeón Tereso Pedro Pablo Tadeo Santiago Simón Lucas Juan Mateo Andrés Bartolomé Ambrosio Geronimo Agustín Bernardo Candido Gerardo Luis-Gonzaga Filomeno Camilo Cayetano Andrés-Avelino Bruno Joaquín-Picolimini Felipe Luis-Rey-de-Francia Ricardo Esteban-Protomártir Genaro Nicolás Estanislao-de-Koska Lorenzo Vicente Crisostomo Cristano Darío Ignacio Francisco-Javier Francisco-de-Borja Higona Clemente Esteban-de-Hungría Ladislado Enrique Ildefonso Hermenegildo Carlos-Borromeo Eduardo Francisco-Régis Vicente-Ferrer Pascual Miguel-de-los-Santos Adriano Venancio Valentín Benito José-Oriol Domingo Florencio Alfacio Benére Domingo-de-Silos Ramón Isidro Manuel Antonio Todos-los-Santos de Borbón y Borbón. The "de Todos los Santos" is actually a phrase that means "all saints" so they named him after a ton of saints and then threw the rest in there for good measure. You might also notice that there are a few repetitions. For example, "Francisco" (including a pair of hyphenated names) is used five times, in honor of five different saints named Francisco. It was and to an extent still is a popular name, after all.
    • Another example, much shorter, is Jaime Pío Juan Carlos Bienvenido Sansón Pelayo Hermenegildo Recaredo Álvaro Fernando Gonzalo Alfonso María de los Dolores Enrique Luis Roberto Francisco Ramiro José Joaquín Isidro Leandro Miguel Gabriel Rafael Pedro Benito Felipe de Borbón y Borbón-Parma, a Carlist claimant to the throne of Spain under the name Jaime III and the Legitimist claimant to the throne of France under the name Jacques I.
    • Another example is Prince Pasquale Baylen Maria del Carmine Giovanni-Battista Vincenzo-Ferreri Michele Arcangel Francesco di Paola Ferdinando Francesco di Assisi Luigi-Re Alfonso Gaetano Giuseppe Pietro Paolo Gennaro Luigi-Gonzaga Giovanni Giuseppe della Croce Gaspare Melchiore Baldassare Alberto Sebastiano Giorgio Venanzio Emanuele Placido Andrea-Avelino Rocco Pacifico Francesco di Geronimo Felice Teziano Ana Filomena Sebazia Lucia Luitgarda Apollina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Bari.
    • And finally, the late Duchess of Alba, perhaps the most powerful non-royal aristocrat in the western world, was named "María del Rosario Cayetana Paloma Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Fernanda Teresa Francisca de Paula Lourdes Antonia Josefa Fausta Rita Castor Dorotea Santa Esperanza Fitz-James Stuart, Silva, Falcó y Gurtubay": Cayetana for short, Tana for shorter.
  • Germany offers their former Secretary of the Economy and Secretary of Defense: his full name is Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, where Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg is his last name and everything else his first names; he goes by Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. As you might expect, he's the descendant of an old noble Bavarian family.
    • To add insult to injury, a Wiki prankster added another, made up given name to his Wiki entry. Half of the German press fell for it.
    • It evidently runs in the family, since the full name of his father, Enoch zu Guttenberg, is Georg Enoch Robert Prosper Philipp Franz Karl Theodor Maria Heinrich Johannes Luitpold Hartmann Gundeloh Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg.
  • Another example from German nobility is Ernst August Albert Paul Otto Rupprecht Oskar Berthold Friedrich-Ferdinand Christian-Ludwig Prinz von Hannover Herzog zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg Königlicher Prinz von Großbritannien und Irland, better known as Prince Ernst August of Hanover, notorious for beating up journalists and publically urinating against a pavilion at the 2000 Expo.
  • Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg (if you were addressing him in German) or Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Shternberg (in Russian). A Baltic-German officer in the Imperial Russian army who was batshit insane and briefly set himself up as the tyrant conqueror of Mongolia during the Russian Civil War.
  • His Royal Highness Franz Joseph II Maria Aloys Alfred Karl Johannes Heinrich Michael Georg Ignaz Benediktus Gerhardus Majella von und zu Liechtenstein.
  • Major Heinrich Alexander Ludwig Peter Prinz von und zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, German World War II night fighter ace with 83 victories. "Prinz" is the title of nobility and not part of his name. His military rank was Major. He used just the name "Wittgenstein" for letters and radio communication.
  • The names of the Roman emperors became progressively longer from the only-slightly-longer-than-the-average-Roman Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus as time went on, reaching its peak during the Crisis of the Third Century with Gordian II, whose full name was Caesar Marcus Antoninus Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus Augustus. "Caesar" and "Augustus" were obligatory for any Roman emperor (echoing the first emperor and honoring his adoptive father)^note When it came about that both the reigning emperor and his heir were considered co-emperors, the name "Caesar" was to one's name after becoming the junior emperor and "Augustus" after becoming the senior emperor., but for most, four to five names total were sufficient to both honor tradition and include their own personal identifier.
  • Ancient Egypt's pharaohs, particularly later ones (specifically, around 1500 B.C. onwards), tended to have quite long names by the sole virtue of their full name being made of five separate names, but Tutankhamun takes the cake by being an extreme demonstration of the fact that each name can technically be made of more than one "name"; his full name is "Kanakht Tutmesut Neferhepusegerehtawy Werahamun Nebrdjer Wetjeskhausehetepnetjeru Heqamaatsehetepnetjeru Wetjeskhauitefre Wetjeskhautjestawyim Nebkheperure Tutankhamun Hekaiunushema". Oh, and before he was crowned (and was pressured to suppress his father Akhenaten's Atenism cult) he used to be known as "Tutankhaten".
  • All the Kings of Italy from the reunification had at least five names, with the longest one being that of Umberto I, AKA "Umberto Rainerio Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio" with eight names... At least among those who have actually reigned, for if we include the claimants the longest name is that of the Prince of Naples Vittorio Emanuele, AKA "Vittorio Emanuele Alberto Carlo Teodoro Umberto Bonifacio Amedeo Damiano Bernardino Gennaro Maria", with twelve. For some unexplained reason, every single one of the kings, both claimants, and their heirs bar one, include in their name the Italian version of "Mary". Another prominent example among members of the royal family who never claimed the throne would be Umberto I's nephew, the famed general Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta. His full name was "Emanuele Filiberto Vittorio Eugenio Alberto Genova Giuseppe Maria di Savoia-Aosta" (the last bit designating him as a member of the House of Savoy's junior Aosta branch; members of the senior branch would have the suffix of simply "di Savoia").
  • Lao names tend to be very long in general, and the regnal names of Lao kings took this up to eleven.
    • The first king of Lan Xang was called Somdetch Brhat-Anya Fa Ladhuraniya Sri Sadhana Kanayudha Maharaja Brhat Rajadharana Sri Chudhana Negara. He's better known as Fa Ngum. The second king Oun Huan/Samsenethai had the regnal name Samdach Brhat-Anya Samu Sena Daya Daya Buvana Natha Adipati Sri Sadhana Kanayudha. Lan Xang's only ruling queen, Nang Keo Phimpha, had the regnal name Samdach Brhat-Anya Sadu Chao Nying Kaeva Bhima Fa Mahadevi.
    • Anouvong, last king of Vientiane, took the cake: his full name was Samdach Paramanadha Parama Bupati Samdach Brhat Pen Chao Singhadhanuraja, Samdach Brhat Parama Bupati Brhat Maha Kashatriya Khatiya Adipati Jayasettha Jatikasuriya Varman, Angga Penh Brhat Yuhuanaya Mahanegara Chandrapuri Sri Sadhana Kanayudha Visudhirattana Rajadhanipuri Rama Lanjang Krum Klao.
    • King Anurutha of Luang Phrabang had the regnal name Samdach Brhat Chao Maha Udama Varman Krung Sri Sadhana Kanayudha Udarattanapuri Rama Brahma Chakrapati Mahanayaka Maharajadhana Lanjang Krung Klao Anuradhuratta. King Chantharath's regnal name was Samdach Brhat Chao Maha Sri Vitha Lan Xang Hom Khao Luang Prabang Parama Sidha Khattiya Suriya Varman Brhat Maha Sri Chao Chandradipati Prabhu Kumara Sundhara Dharmadhata Praditsa Rajadipati Sri Sadhana Kanayudha Udarmapuri Rajadhani Damrungsa Lavaya Bunsabidaya Anuraksha Riyangsakra Sadhidnaya Luang Prabang Dhani.
    • The last king of Laos was named Samdach Brhat Chao Mavattaha Sri Vitha Lan Xang Hom Khao Phra Rajanachakra Lao Parama Sidha Khattiya Suriya Varman Brhat Maha Sri Savangsa Vadhana.
• Lengthy strings of given names are a Hispanic tradition:
  • Pablo Picasso's real name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Marí­a de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santí­sima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso. The only surnames in there are "Ruiz" and "Picasso" at the end, used in standard Spanish fashion (the first is his father's surname and the second his mother's, joined by an "y" as per a now outdated convention)^note In most circumstances, this would technically make Ruiz his "official" surname; most Hispanophones use their paternal surname as their primary one. However, in most Spanish-speaking countries, the maternal and paternal surnames are equally valid, and if someone wants to use their maternal surname (e.g. because of closer connections to their mother or because their mother's family is richer or more powerful), society generally respects the choice. Besides Picasso, another famous Spaniard to go by his maternal surname is José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the former Prime Minister of Spain, whose decision to use "Zapatero" rather than "Rodriguez" (apparently because his father walked out on his family when he was a child) was considered completely unremarkable. The rest are given names his parents piled on him to honour various saints and relatives - naming children after those is common in Spanish, but it seems to have gotten out of control here.
  • Not at all unusual with older Hispanic names; Simón Bolívar's full name was Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco and Francisco Franco's full name was Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde, Salgado-Araujo y Pardo de Andrade.
  • On the topic of long Spanish full names, the singer and actress Charo has a full name that goes as follows: María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Moquiere de les Esperades Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Najosa Rasten. Yeah, "Charo" is perfectly fine.
  • The late Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto, otherwise known as Roger Delgado. But you may know him as The Master.
  • Diego Rivera was Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez.
  • Television journalist Soledad O’Brien’s (who is Afro-Latina on her mom’s side) full name is María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien. It translates to [The Blessed Virgin] Mary of Solitude Teresa O’Brien.
    • It is extremely common for Spanish-speaking women to be formally named "Mary of [attribute]" and normally known by the suffix; [Maria de las] Mercedes, [Maria de los] Dolores, [Maria del] Rosario, [Maria del] Pilar, [Maria de] Guadalupe and so on and so on.
  • Rally legend Carlos Sainz named his son Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro Cenamor Rincón Rebollo Virto Moreno de Aranda Don Per Urrielagoiria Pérez del Pulgar. Said son became a racing driver in his own right and goes by the much simpler name of Carlos Sainz Jr.
  • Triple Frontier co-stars and real-life friends Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal were respectively born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada and José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal; they proudly recited these in a WIRED promo for the movie.
  • French actor Jean Reno is born from Spanish parents, and his real name is "Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez".
• In general, traditional Arabic names can often be overly long. The concept of surnames didn't exist in any widespread form in many Arab countries until actually fairly recently; family names were occasionally used for, and by the individual members of, ruling dynasties and other powerful families, but the average Joe (or, in this case, the average Yusuf) would have to settle for being named "son of such-and-so" or "of such-and-such place" or "of such-and-such description", and sometimes all of them at once, Osama bin Muhammed bin Awad bin Laden being one particularly infamous example.
  • Or the Arab mathematician Abū Kāmil, Shujāʿ ibn Aslam ibn Muḥammad Ibn Shujāʿ
  • The father-in-law of Muhammad (SAW) may take the cake: Abdullah ibn 'Uthman ibn Amir ibn Amr ibn Ka'ab ibn Sa'ad ibn Taym ibn Murrah ibn Ka'ab ibn Lu'ai ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr al-Quraishi, better known as Abu Bakr/Bakar.
• Traditional Hebrew names are quite similar to Arabic names (unsurprising given the closeness of the cultures). As an example "Paltiel Yeshai ben Pesach Yonah ha Cohen" breaks down as "two-part-given-name son-of father's-two-part-given-name of-the-tribe-of take-your-pick-from-the-11-tribes-2-half-tribes-hereditary-high-priesthood-or-ethnic-subgroup-of-converts". That last bit is true, FYI, although most of the 12 tribes are considered deceased, leaving the tribes of Israel and Levi the only ones officially recognized, with the Cohanim, who are the aforementioned hereditary high-priesthood, being part of the tribe of Levi and officially descended from Moses and Aaron. There are several non-Semitic groups of Jews who have other appelations if they even bother to use Hebrew naming customs.

• Sports example: Former NHL star Jarome Iginla's full name is Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla. Calgary Flames fans just call him Iggy.
• A Major League Baseball example: Russell Nathan Jeanson Coltrane Martin Jr. Despite primarily going by Russell, he wore "J. Martin" on the back of his jersey as of 2009.
• College basketball gives us a combo of an unpronounceable first name with an overly long last name (and a cool middle name, which he uses instead of the first name): Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims Jr., of the Alabama State Hornets.
• In the NBA, Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo, normally known by only his first two names.
• The longest name ever given to a serious cricketer was owned by a Fijian player called Ilikena Lasarusa Talebulamainavaleniveivakabulaimainakulalakebalau, which roughly translates to "returned alive from Nakula Hospital at Lakemba island In the Lau group". Fortunately for scorers, he shortened it to I. L. Bula when playing.
• France's former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has for full name "Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin".
• Former French president Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa. He has Hungarian ancestors.
• The 16th-century physician and alchemist Paracelsus was before he took that name, known as Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim.
• Science fiction author Cory Doctorow has a daughter named Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow.
• Kiefer Sutherland's full name is Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland.
• The actor now known as Alexander Siddig (and once known as Siddig el Fadil) has the given name of Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi (but, supposedly, his friends call him Sid).
• Belgian martial artist and actor Jean-Claude Van Damme has the given name of Jean-Claude Camille François van Varenberg.
• Then there's Italian poet Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi.
• And French composer Louis George Maurice Adolphe Roche Albert Abel Antonio Alexandre Noë Jean Lucien Daniel Eugène Joseph-le-brun Joseph-Barême Thomas Thomas Thomas-Thomas Pierre Arbon Pierre-Maurel Barthélemi Artus Alphonse Bertrand Dieudonné Emanuel Josué Vincent Luc Michel Jules-de-la-plane Jules-Bazin Julio César Jullien. His father was the conductor for the Philharmonic Society in their hometown, and when he was born, all thirty-six members insisted on being godfathers.
• Aleister Crowley's first child was named Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley. One of his associates claimed the child had died of acute nomenclature.
• Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga, the former president of Zaire. (Which, according to The Other Wiki, translates as "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake").
• The full name of Santa Anna, the Mexican general/president who was in power during the Texan revolution, was "Antonio de Padua María Severino Lopéz de Santa Anna y Perez de Lébron".
• Roberto Agustín Miguel Santiago Samuel Trujillo Veracruz from Metallica, also known as Rob Trujillo.
• Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, better known as just Brian Eno.
• The Conservative Party in the UK is well known to traditionally the choice of the well off and posh, something they try to play down in modern times (not helped by candidates with names such as Annunziata Rees-mogg), but the ones that really took the cake and demonstrated this trope was in the 2010 general election, with Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (whose grand-uncle, by the way, was Lord Dunsany). His quadruple surname is exceeded (in Britain) only by the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, whose surname was Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville.
  • The Swedish Moderate Party is in a similar position. One of their current MPs is Her Imperial and Royal Highness Walburga Maria Franziska Helene Elisabeth von Habsburg-Lothringen.
• Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta Sobieski
• Hawaiian King Kamehameha I's full name was Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea.
• The father of paleontology: Baron Georges Leopold Chretien Frederic Dagobert Cuvier.
• The Saudi Arabian King, and how! Most people know him as either Salman of Saudi Arabia or Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, which are fine and dandy. His full name, however, is insane: Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud.^note Basically a recitation of his paternal ancestry for seven generations.
• Seal is not a stage name. His full name is, in fact, Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel.
• The real name of Philippine national hero José Rizal is José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda. And if that's too long for you, just call him "Pepe".
  • Filipinos, in general, tend to have pretty long names. Following the Spanish tradition, many use both the father and mother's surnames along with other personal names.
• Meanwhile, neighboring Malaysia's first Prime Minister was Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, or "Tunku".
• There was a little girl named "Talula Does The Hula in Hawaii". The parents got away with it for most of her childhood, but a judge later ruled that she be made a ward of court so she could change her embarrassing name.
• Jesse Camp, the squawk-voiced, scarecrow-ish winner of MTV’s first "Wanna Be A VJ" contest, is actually Josiah Jesse Holden Camp IV. He initially claimed to be a homeless street kid during the competition, but it was later discovered that he was from upper-class New England stock.
• This trope was taken up to eleven with the children of Ralph Tollemache-Tollmache and Dora Cleopatra Maria Lorenza de Orellana (both of whom are also examples in their own right). Their ten children were named the following:
  • Dora Viola G.I. de Orellana Dysart Plantagenet
  • Mabel Helmingham Ethel Huntingtower Beatrice Blazonberrie Evangeline Vise de Lou de Orellana Plantagenet Toedmag Saxon
  • Lyonesse Matilda Dora Ida Agnes Ernestine Curson Paulet Wilbraham Joyce Eugénie Bentley Saxonia Dysart Plantagenet
  • Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedmag Hugh Erchenwyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart
  • Lyona Decima Veroica Esyth Undine Cyssa Hylda Rowena Adela Thyra Ursuala Ysabel Blanche Lelias Dysart Plantagenet
  • Leo Quintus Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet
  • Lyonella Fredegunda Cuthberga Ethelswytha Ideth Ysabel Grace Monica de Orellana Plantagenet
  • Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet
  • Lyonetta Edith Regina Valentine Myra Polwarth Avelina Phillipa Violantha de Orellana Plantagenet
  • Lyunulph Cospatrick Bruce Berkeley Jermyn Tullibardine Petersham de Orellana Dysart Plantagenet
  • These are probably the longest names of any famous people in history, or at least not famous for having long names.
• Richard Pryor's full name was Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor.
• Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wangenheim, the actor most famous for his role as Hutter in Nosferatu. He usually went by Gustav von Wangenheim.
• Actor Herbert Lom (most famous for playing Inspector Clouseau's long-suffering superior, Inspector Dreyfus, in The Pink Panther) was born in Prague to noble parents and christened Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru. He chose "Lom" as his stage name because it was the shortest surname he could find in the local telephone dictionary (it means "quarry" in Czech).
• Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford, or Mike Rutherford of Genesis and Mike + the Mechanics.
• Dutch actress Gonny Gaakeer was born Gonny Yke Aukje Gooitsche Romkje Emmanuëla Eugénie Pieternella Geertruida Jacoba Johanna Ellen Yvonne Sjoerdina Gaakeer.
• The firstborn daughter of legendary Finnish 19th-century folk trickster Kuikka-Koponen was christened as Iida Riia Lucina Hilda Hulda Levatiina Amanda Olivia Ceela Concordia Jemna Jekleobeth Koponen, though five years later her name was recorded in a much shorter and somewhat different form as Luiina Konkordia Jeklobette Koponen. She died, unfortunately, at the age of seven.
• Poppy Montgomery's full name is Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue.
• Michael Anthony Thomas Charles Hall. He uses only his first and second names professionally (in reversed order).
• Legendary ABC News anchor Peter Jennings. His full name was Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings.
• The same phenomenon found in Spanish is common in Brazil, hence why most famous people are known by a nickname or on a First-Name Basis. Former president Lula was born "Luiz Inácio da Silva", and later added his nickname to the legal name: "Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva".
  • And then, of course, there is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, arguably the greatest footballer who has ever lived.
  • Not to mention another football great, Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira. He was known simply as Sócrates.
• Rudolph Valentino's full name was Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla.
• Remember that part about German aristocrats? A Polish politician, being married to one of them, once found out that she has to be registered on the ballots under her full legal name: Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein. She usually goes by Róża Thun, but that time her political opponents felt nastier than usual and went full Lawful Neutral on her. Hilarity ensued.
• This Roman military diploma was awarded to a Gaius Marius Marcellus Octavius Tublius Cluvius Rufus (as shown on the eighth line from the bottom).
• Erich von Manstein, one of Germany's top ten Operational-level commanders in WW2 and one of just a handful convicted for War Crimes against enemy POW (execution of Communists, Jews) and civilians (execution of all Jews, destruction of all settlements and farmland in an area home to several million people) by the Western Allies (and one of just two allowed to be convicted by the British) had the full name Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski.
• Akon's full name is Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Bongo Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam. Ellen DeGeneres even suggested using one of the names for every release.
• Patricia Ann Angela Bridget Carroll, or simply Pat Carroll (best known as the voice of Ursula).
• It is not uncommon for parents who are sports fans to give their children the names of *every* player in their favored team. For example Paula St John Lawrence Lawler Byrne Strong Yeats Stevenson Callaghan Hunt Milne Smith Thompson Shankly Bennett Paisley O’Sullivan, born in the late 1960s and named after the Liverpool FA Cup winning team.
  • Another example: Anthony Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James Oatway, a former Brighton and Hove Albion player whose parents named him after the Queens Park Rangers team in the 1972/73 season. And which name does he use? Charlie, as his aunt said, "he'd look a right Charlie" when she was told of the name, and that one stuck.
• Dusty Springfield's real name was Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien.
• Daniela Marina Elisabeth Klein, better known as Damae, vocalist of the Europop/trance group Fragma.
• During the late Roman Republic, there was a senator whose name was Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Cornelianus Scipio Nasica. He had been adopted from the Cornelius clan into the Metellus clan and inherited two cognomens from both his father and his adoptive father. He's also a minor character in HBO's Rome (going by just "Scipio").
• The longest attested ancient Roman name was Quintus Pompeius Senecio Roscius Murena Coelius Sextus Iulius Frontinus Silius Decianus Gaius Iulius Eurycles Herculaneus Lucius Vibullius Pius Augustanus Alpinus Bellicius Sollers Iulius Aper Ducenius Proculus Rutilianus Rufinus Silius Valens Valerius Niger Claudius Fuscus Saxa Amyntianus Sosius Priscus, a consul in 169.
• Nicholas If-Jesus-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barebone, better known as Nicholas Barbon, pioneer of fire insurance.
  • There are plentiful examples of Puritan names like this, and they're the basis for the Omnian names in Discworld.
• Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame, whose full name is Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke.
• Gloria Estefan's birth name was Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García.
• Swedish football player John Guidetti's full name is John Alberto Fernando Andres Luigi Olof Guidetti.
• Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala from 1900 to 1938, had the full name Lieutenant-General H.H. Farzand-i-Khas-i-Daulat-i-Inglishia Sri 108^note "Sri" repeated 108 times Maharadhiraj Mohinder Bahadur.
• English boxing fan Brian Brown named his daughter Maria Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jefferies Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown, her middle names coming from every heavyweight boxing champion up until the time of her birth in 1974. Maria has continued the family tradition by giving her daughters Willow and Autumn the same middle names (and their last name is Taylor-Brown).
• Miriam Makeba was born Zensile Makeba Qgwashu Nguvama Yiketheli Nxgowa Bantana Balomzi Xa Ufnu Ubajabulisa Ubaphekeli Mbiza Yotshwala Sithi Xa Saku Qgiba Ukutja Sithathe Izitsha Sizi Khabe Singama Lawu Singama Qgwashu Singama Nqamla Nqgithi. At least, that's what she told Time.
• Race car driver António Félix da Costa's full name is António Maria de Mello Breyner Félix da Costa. His brother, Duarte, has Duarte Maria de Ortigão Ramos Félix da Costa.
• Lester del Rey used to claim that his real name was Ramón Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heartcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez-del Rey y de los Verdes. Posthumous evidence strongly suggests it wasn't.

Languages with long names

• Some languages (usually agglutinative or polysynthetic ones) naturally conspire to result in people (and place names) with long given or family names.
  • Andriatsimitoviaminandriandehibe, King of Madagascar. Kudos to whoever manages to spell that one right. The name means Lord-who-doesn't-resemble-any-other-great-lord. Family names with syllable are actually average for Malgache: the sixth president is Hery Rajaonarimampianina. Randriamananjara Radofa Besata Jean Longin, aka Madagascar Slim, is a Madagascar-born Canadian guitarist.
• Many Indian and Sri Lankan names are long enough that elements (either given names or patronyms) are usually abbreviated, and may never be listed in full even in official material.
  • Former Sri Lankan cricket star Chaminda Vaas' full name goes Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas. Add to that Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene, Kulasekara Mudiyanselage Dinesh Nuwan Kulasekara, and Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath, and you can see why it became a running gag amongst TV commentators to pronounce their full names without messing up along the way.
  • Tamils and Telugus do not have names so much as they have the birth address, parentage information, and an effusive tribute to a favored deity all wrapped up into one. Jawcrackers include cricketer Kandiah Thirugnansampandapillai Francis, politician Chetpat Pattabhirama Ramaswami Iyer, and singer Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi.
• Thai surnames are infamous for being excessively long, because they have the additional baggage of having to be unique to each other. The 1913 Surname Law of Thailand necessitated that all individuals had to adopt surnames and unrelated people had to have different ones. In the early 20th century, the Kingdom of Siam had a population numbering about 7.2 million, which means the total number of surnames are probably a quarter that. There might have been a few cases where a surname is shared, but for the most part they're unique.
  • Laos, which speaks a language related to Thai, is much the same. "Souphanousinphone" is a made-up name, but it's actually a perfect representative of how long real-life Lao names are.
• In the Netherlands and in Deutschland, surnames alone have a potential to be overly long. For one thing, Dutch uses prepositions such as "van" or, "van der" or "over de" and German uses “von”. Also, German is big on making compound words anyway, and bigger on doing so than the English language is, so that contributes to it having plenty of overly long individual surnames as well. If a person's ancestors were of a noble family that owned land, the surname will sometimes be "[Name] to [Place]". If several branches of a family used different names when official surnames had to be registered under Napoléon Bonaparte in 1811, the surname will sometimes be something like "[Name], also called [Name]". If they couldn't or wouldn't choose, it will sometimes be "[Name] or [Name]". Combined they have a potential to be monstrous: the longest recorded surname in the Netherlands is currently "van den Heuvel tot Beichlingen, gezegd Bartolotti Rijnders". Now imagine this person having about four or five Christian names, and double-barrels their surname upon marriage.
  • Celtic and Netherlands footballer (what the USA calls soccer) Johannes "Jan" Vennegoor of Hesselink^What? The of is Dutch for "or". It originates from the 17th century, when the Vennegoor and Hesselink families intermarried, but the family names were about equal in prestige so they just decided to keep both. is a mild example, but the last three words form the longest surname ever successfully printed in full on a football shirt. Normal-sized lettering just about fitted◊ so condensed typesets had to be produced to accommodate his name.

Places

Examples

• Los Angeles was originally known as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula (Translation: "The City of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels of the River of Porciúncula"). Now one can see why they just call the place L.A.
  • Albuquerque, New Mexico, started out as El Bosque Grande de San Francisco de Javier. Bosque means "woods".
• Bangkok's full ceremonial name, given by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, and later edited by King Mongkut, is: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. This translates to The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma. Yep. In Thai it's usually just referred to by the first two or three words.
  • Or maybe Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit. Thai writing has no word-breaks.
• A hill in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand goes by the name Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. It's Maori for "a guy with huge knees and who accomplished a lot sang a romance song to his dead brother here". It's gained a measure of fame as it is the longest place-name found in any English-speaking country, and it is the second longest place-name in the world.
  • There's an even longer version, namely Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauo-tamateahaumaitawhitiurehaeaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which has the same meaning, but with some more accomplishments added in.
• Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster, Massachusetts (for no other reason than cultural aggression, better known as "Webster Lake"). It's apparently Algonquian for "fishing place at the boundary", or as some wags like to translate it, "I fish on my side, you fish on your side, nobody fishes in the middle."
• The longest one-word place name in Finland is Äteritsiputeritsipuolilaudatsijänkkä, a marsh in Salla; the name appears to be pure gibberish, but it is real.
• The longest place name in Finland however is Semmoinen niemi, jossa käärme koiraa pisti ("A promontory where a snake bit the dog") in Perho.
• Jaurjärviozerosee, a lake in Karelia. The name means simply "lake-lake-lake-lake" in four different languages combined - Sami (jauri), Finnish (järvi), Russian (ozero) and German (see).
• There's a small municipality in Central Ontario known as "Dysart et al". While that name doesn't fit the trope, "et al" might indicate there's more than meets the eye... and you'd be right. The official name of the community is "Corporation of the United Townships of Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre, and Clyde".
• Another Canadian example is in Newfoundland and Labrador, where eight small communities formed what the province calls a "local service district" in 2010, specifically to improve the area's fire protection services. The full official name is "Lethbridge, Morley's Siding, Brooklyn, Charleston, Jamestown, Portland, Winter Brook and Sweet Bay". The common name is "Lethbridge to Sweet Bay", and the district promotes itself as "Lethbridge and Area".
• The official full name of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi was Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Interestingly, at five words, it was only the second-longest country name on Earth; the longest is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, at six (eight if you include prepositions and conjunctions). On the other hand, the UK actually needs all of those words (because it was United out of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and when the Irish Free State was formed, it really wasn't accurate to say just "Ireland", so they added Northern in the middle), while Libya could have shortened its name to just "Libya" without doing any harm—which is exactly what the National Transitional Council did when they kicked Gaddafi out (although they used "Libyan Republic", as well, before officially changing it to "State of Libya").
• There's a small town in South Africa (about  west of Pretoria) that's called "Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein" - which is Afrikaans for "The spring where two buffalo were shot dead with one bullet". It's since become a synonym in South Africa for an obscure rural small town.
• Saint-Pierre-de-Véronne-à-Pike-River, Quebec. Complete with the dashes and the midsentence language change, and best known as a blip on the map between Montreal and the U.S border. Not even the longest in the province, that would be the somewhat redundantly wordier Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine. France takes the cake, though, with names like Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson and Saint-Germain-de-Tallevende-la-Lande-Vaumont.
• The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one of the original thirteen British colonies in America. It was so named because it was a merger of three breakaway settlements from Massachusetts—Rhode Island (located on the actual island of that name, also called Aquidneck Island), and the mainland-based Providence Plantation and Warwick Plantation. After American independence, it became The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations until the last three words were dropped in 2020. It had commonly been known as Rhode Island from the start anyway. (In the 17th century, "plantation" just meant "large agricultural property" and didn't have anything specifically to do with slavery, hence why a free state had the word in its name.)
• The football stadium at the University of Virginia is officially called the Carl Smith Center, Home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium.^note The original name was Scott Stadium, from the family name of the donors who funded the initial construction in the 1930s. Harrison donated several million to the football program in the 1990s, and later in that decade, Smith was the lead donor on a major stadium expansion project.
  • The official name of the University of Florida's football stadium is almost as long: Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.^note The original name was Florida Field. The stadium was renamed in 1989 to honor major donor Griffin, though the playing surface remained "Florida Field". Spurrier's name was added to the name of the playing surface in 2016; he was a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the Gators who later coached the team during its most successful period in the 1990s.
• A few American universities have unwieldy full names, like Columbia University in the City of New York, State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill (everyone just calls it SUNY Cobleskill) and LSU's formal name is Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College.
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The "County" is important since there's a completely separate school called University of Maryland, Baltimore. And also because Baltimore County is separate from Baltimore, which is an independent city. Thankfully for the school, the initials UMBC are now a household term thanks to the basketball team's historic March Madness upset over the University of Virginia in 2018.
  • Taking it up to eleven is a certain institution in Texas. When Stephen F. Austin State University joined the University of Texas System in 2023, its legal name became "Stephen F. Austin State University, a member of The University of Texas System".
• Argentina's capital city of Buenos Aires was founded as Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire ("City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds"), giving little doubt as to why it was eventually shortened to "Buenos Aires".

Artificially lengthened names

Examples

• A teenager has changed his name to "Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined". The name was the idea of music graduate George Garratt, 19. He changed his name by deed poll online for £10.
• Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales. The name means 'St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio with a red cave'. It incidentally comprises a visitor center with a souvenir shop and cafe, a railway station with a very long nameplate, some houses, a church featuring a statue of Lord Nelson near the water, pubs, a football team and things you'd normally find in the UK. Despite being fairly normal underneath the name, The alternative (and funny) tourist guide Bollocks To Alton Towers marvels at how Llanfair PG (the town's condensed name) has made a tourist attraction out of nothing more than a funny name. The town was deliberately renamed to attract tourism when the railroad came through; before that, it was just plain Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, which is still its name on official road signs and maps and is still used when you don't want to spend the next month or so writing it out.
  • One episode of The Goodies showed the trio getting into a train at said station. As it moves off, the station roof can be seen through the window, with the name painted on it in large letters. The train eventually reaches the end of the name, and they get out again.
  • And then there's Gorsafawddacha'idraigodanheddogleddollônpenrhynareurdraethceredigion, a railway station named so in order to outdo the above-mentioned town. Better known as Golf Halt◊.
• Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116. Pronounced Albin.
• Eastern Ontario is home to a federal electoral district named Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. It was originally just Leeds-Grenville, but it got renamed sometime during the 2012 federal electoral redistribution
• I AM THE BEAST SIX SIX SIX OF THE LORD OF HOSTS IN EDMOND FRANK MACGILLIVRAY JR NOW. I AM THE BEAST SIX SIX SIX OF THE LORD OF HOSTS IEFMJN. I AM THE BEAST SIX SIX SIX OF THE LORD OF HOSTS. I AM THE BEAST SIX SIX SIX OTLOHIEFMJN. I AM THE BEAST SSSOTLOHIEFMJN. I AM THE BEAST SIX SIX SIX. BEAST SIX SIX SIX LORD.
• Truth in Television... not. Science Fiction author and editor Lester del Rey often claimed that his full name was Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heartcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez del Rey y de los Uerdes. Which sounds a lot more evocative than his real name... Leonard Knapp.
• The Czech fringe political party Pravý Blok went into the elections with a name which ran over 30 lines and consisted of a rant against the current political situation, with the party's Internet and snail mail address at the end. For those interested, the full name of the party (translated from the Czech; the party's website and postal address has been redacted, capitalization and punctuation left intact) is ^here "Vote for Right Block - party for easy and fast RECALL of politicians and state employees DIRECTLY BY THE PEOPLE, for LOW taxes, BALANCED budget, MINIMALIZATION of bureaucracy, FAIR and UNCORRUPTED police and justice, REFERENDA and DIRECT DEMOCRACY [website], running with the best anti-criminal programme of DIRECT democracy and deep national, spiritual and moral renaissance YOU DON'T TRUST THE POLITICIANS AND THEIR JOURNALISTS? FINALLY! BELIEVE IN OURSELVES!!! - but also with many other REASONS we should EVERYBODY GO TO ELECTIONS, but - if we don't want to be ONCE AGAIN lied to, cheated and robbed - NOT VOTE FOR ANY PARLIAMENTARY TUNNEL-PARTY of the ruling (post) communist RUSSIAN-CZECH totalitarian POLICECRACY and their destructive anti-national politics WORSE IS BETTER!!! - which asks for the support of ALL THE CZECH CITIZENS and taxpayers who want to change the current criminal state of affairs, of which we are all victims, into its opposite! IN THE FIGHT BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, TRUTH AND LIES, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE NEUTRAL AND STILL REMAIN FAIR!!! This is why we thank for your support!!! If you don't believe in humility at the executioner's cart, if our list does not seem good enough to you or if it misses a representative of your village or town and at the same time you HAVE COURAGE in this war of the People of Good against the ruling People of Evil to arise from civic unconsciousness, by which they destroy us, and radically change the today's DEMOCRATORSHIP, HIDDEN TOTALITARIANISM and SLAVERY OF THE HIGHER AUTHORITY, then CANDIDATE FOR US!!! Contact: Vote for Right Block [website], [postal address]".
  • Which makes the German party Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative (Party for employment, rule of law, animal protection, furtherance of the elites and grassroots democratic initiative, mostly chosen for the acronym "Partei" - "party") look silly in comparison. Well, it is run by a (decidedly left-wing) satire monthly.

Others

Examples

• Francis E. Dec called his long-time nemesis Worldwide Mad Deadly Communist Gangster Computer God.
• The full chemical name of titin. All other words combined on this page can't even reach a sixth of that length. Chemical names, in general, tend to be that way (vitamin C's full name is 2-oxo-L-threo-hexono-1,4-lactone-2,3-enediol), but proteins are virtually never referred to by their IUPAC names.
  • How long is it? Try ''2 hours'' long to pronounce the entire thing. And that's with a text-to-speech program running at 4x speed, so around 8 hours. Just to pronounce the 188,000+ letter monstrosity.
• Hawaii's state fish is the humuhumunukunukuapua'a^note It's pronounced just like it's spelled.... It does have a less syllable-intensive English name (reef triggerfish), but it's actually better known by its native name, including being named that way by the statute that designates it the state fish. Also, on a lot of tourist merchandise.
  • Some would probably find it easier to pronounce its scientific name of Rhinecanthus rectangulus instead
  • Became popular after a High School Musical song all about it "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a"
  • The literal translation also counts: "triggerfish with a snout like a pig."
• The Verein zur Wahrung der gemeinsamen wirtschaftlichen Interessen in Rheinland und Westfalen, which means something like "The Association for the Protection of the Common Economic Interests of the Rhineland and Westphalia," had a name so long that even the Germans noticed; it was generally known as the Langnamverein (i.e. "Long Name Association")
• Show dogs' officially-registered names have a tendency to be too long for the dogs, themselves, to remember.
• Junji Ito's sister's cat Ran Purahachi Daruma-Tsuchinoko-Bandit-Katsushin, AKA Ran-chan.
• Because the German language allows words to be strung together, many overly long names can come out of this, for example, the name of the law Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (this is the short title of the law), the by-law Grundstücks­verkehrs­genehmigungs­zuständigkeits­übertragungs­verordnung and the organization Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft (unsourced, but was in the Guinness Book of Records). Way longer words would be possible with the language rules, for example, the Donau.. could be extended with "..gesellschaftsbuchführungshauptverantwortlicherstundenlohnerfassungstabellenspaltenbreite" (not that it would make a whole lot of sense though).
• The longest word that has ever appeared in an English-language dictionary is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, meaning a lung disease caused by inhaling volcanic ash. The longest nontechnical and non-coined word is Antidisestablishmentarianism.
• Lists of royal titles tend to get ridiculous as they may accumulate and maintain domains they sometimes have not actually had under control for centuries, if ever.
  • "By the Grace of God, King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Jonkeer van Amsberg, Marquis of Veere and Flushing, Count of Katzenelnbogen, Vianden, Diez, Spiegelberg, Buren, Leerdam and Culemborg, Burgrave of Antwerp, Baron of Breda, Diest, Beilstein, the town of Grave and the lands of Cuyk, IJsselstein, Cranendonk, Eindhoven, Liesveld, Herstal, Warneton, Arlay and Nozeroy, Hereditary and Free Lord of Ameland, Lord of Borculo, Bredevoort, Lichtenvoorde, Het Loo, Geertruidenberg, Clundert, Zevenbergen, Hooge and Lage Zwaluwe, Naaldwijk, Polanen, St Maartensdijk, Soest, Baarn, Ter Eem, Willemstad, Steenbergen, Montfort, St Vith, Bütgenbach, Dasburg, Niervaart, Turnhout and Besançon."
  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who ruled over Germany, Austria, Spain (including the New World) and bits and pieces of everywhere was officially styled: Charles, by the grace of God, Holy Roman Emperor, forever August, King of Germany, King of Italy, King of all Spains, of Castile, Aragon, León, of Hungary, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, Navarra, Grenada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, Majorca, Sevilla, Cordova, Murcia, Jaén, Algarves, Algeciras, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, King of Two Sicilies, of Sardinia, Corsica, King of Jerusalem, King of the Western and Eastern Indies, of the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Lorraine, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Limburg, Luxembourg, Gelderland, Neopatria, Württemberg, Landgrave of Alsace, Prince of Swabia, Asturia and Catalonia, Count of Flanders, Habsburg, Tyrol, Gorizia, Barcelona, Artois, Burgundy Palatine, Hainaut, Holland, Seeland, Ferrette, Kyburg, Namur, Roussillon, Cerdagne, Drenthe, Zutphen, Margrave of the Holy Roman Empire, Burgau, Oristano and Gociano, Lord of Frisia, the Wendish March, Pordenone, Biscay, Molin, Salins, Tripoli and Mechelen. His descendants the kings of Spain still nominally claim many of these.
  • The verbose royal pretensions of Spain and the Netherlands reflect, in part, their history of accretion from smaller entities. The kings of France, on the other hand, considered all their provinces to be created by the kingdom, rather than ancestral to it; the king cannot be his own vassal, so he used no such titles as "duke of Britanny".
• Micropachycephalosaurus hongtuyanensis has the longest name of any dinosaur. Ironically, it was one of the smallest dinosaurs.
• There's an award called the Knights Grand Companion of the Order of the Gallant Prince Syed Putra Jamalullai (Malaysia), which may be the longest name for a category on The Other Wiki.
• In some cases, computers need to generate unique names on the fly, which are often done by concatenating machine name + user name + date + time + random number or some other method unlikely to be used elsewhere.
• The band of Stanford University, (in)famous for its extremely varied repertoire, sometimes deliberately offensive antics, and for being involved in one of the most famous plays in college football history^note as in running onto the field while said play was live, is officially known as the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band.^note The first four words are the university's full legal name. The band itself takes this trope up to eleven when it takes the field at home games; it's introduced as "The One, The Only, The Truly Incomparable Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band".
  • Also of note: to properly pronounce it, one must pause after the word "junior" because the university was named after Leland Stanford Junior, and is not a "junior-university" so it's properly called the Leland Stanford Junior (pause) University Marching Band
• A company registered in China in 2016 has a 39-character name that translates to "There is a Group of Young People with Dreams that Believes they Can Make the Miracles of Life Under the Leadership of Uncle Niu Internet Technologies of Baoji, LLC". This got into a minor meme and eventually became a casualty of the Chinese Government's campaign against wacky company names.
• In 220, when Guan Yu died he just had the posthumous title 壯繆侯 (Marquis Zhuangmou). But over the centuries emperors would gradually increase his title, and by the mid-1800s he was known as 仁勇威顯護國保民精誠綏靖翊贊宣德忠義神武關聖大帝 (Guan the Holy Great Deity; God of War Manifesting Benevolence, Bravery and Prestige; Protector of the Country and Defender of the People; Prow and Honest Supporter of Peace and Reconciliation; Promoter of Morality, Loyalty and Righteousness). Not surprisingly, that title was eventually shortened to 關帝 (Emperor Guan), 關聖帝君 (Holy Emperor Lord Guan), or 武聖 (Saint of War) depending on religion.
• The original full name for Frosted Flakes cereal ("Frosties" in the UK) is "Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes of Corn".
• The oldest of several organizations that promote barbershop music was founded in 1938 as the "Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc.", with the official initialism of SPEBSQSA. The long name was a deliberate parody of FDR's New Deal "alphabet agencies". Because of the name's length, members and staff typically called it "The Society", with "Barbershop Harmony Society" soon becoming an officially approved alternative. This trope was mostly averted in 2004, when "Barbershop Harmony Society" became the official brand name, with the original name retained only for legal purposes.
• IATSE, a powerful labor union representing many skilled workers in live theater, film, television, and trade shows, stands for International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. The full name is much longer: International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada.

Aversions

• All this was actually averted by one of the more famous British monarchs, Queen Victoria. She was threatened with the name Victoria Georgina Alexandrina Charlotte Augusta at her christening, but her uncle, the soon-to-be King George IV, vetoed them because he didn't want her to have any traditional royal names. After a short argument where her mother burst into tears, she was christened Alexandrina Victoria ("Alexandrina" after her godfather Alexander I of Russia, to piss off her anti-Russian uncle, and "Victoria" after her mother). Luckily, when she took the throne she decided to use the name Victoria, otherwise, her reign would've been called the Alexandrinan Age. (That said, she did allow certain people who knew her in childhood—particularly her mother and half-siblings—to call her "Drina". On the other hand, her husband Prince Albert called her Victoria.)
• Science fiction writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris used his names in varying combinations as pen names. He started his career as "John Benyon Harris", switched to "John Benyon", and published at least one story as "Wyndham Parkes", but most of his work (such as The Day of the Triffids) was written as "John Wyndham". One novel (a straight spaceflight adventure rather than John Wyndham's usual apocalypse and post-apocalypse works) was published as a supposed collaboration between the established "John Wyndham" and the previously unpublished "Lucas Parkes".
• Inverted with the second President of Myanmar, who had possibly the shortest name of any famous person in history (or possibly anyone in history), Ba U.
• Finnish law restricts citizen's names to up to four first names and a surname that's at most combined from two surnames (both of which have to, usually, be from close family trees), probably for practical reasons and to avoid excessively long names like the ones in this page (which some people would certainly use for their children if they were allowed). Would still allow for a 6-name string (four given names and a combination of two surnames), and given how long Finnish names can sometimes be, the total length in characters could be relatively large. (By far the most common practice is two given names and one surname.) Similar laws probably exist in many other countries as well.

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