Passports, long names and booking flights

[jmh59]

Random query... does anyone have a rather long name / mix of names on their passport and find it difficult sometimes to get through airline booking forms that 'require' an exact match to be entered?

I am going to ask the airline concerned how strict they are - but just wondered. One has a max of 28 characters for the whole name and will not accept hyphens.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You generally don't need to enter middle names, just first and last. But beyond that check with the airline as policy in such cases may differ.

 

[AlterEgo]

If your name physically does not fit then ask them their policy.

On hyphens, these are not used in airline industry systems. Either of

MARK JONES SMITH or
MARK JONESSMITH are acceptable.

I have a full name with a hyphen and have never had a problem.

 

[najaB]

One has a max of 28 characters for the whole name and will not accept hyphens.

They don't have separate fields for given and family names? That's uncommon.

As to the strictness, I once ended up with my family and given names reversed - so that I was (say) 'MR HOWARD DAVID ANDERSON' instead of 'MR ANDERSON DAVID HOWARD' and it wasn't a problem at all.

 

[etr221]

The ICAO (so international) standard for passport machine readable zones allows 39 characters, including fillers ( for name(s). I would expect any system expecting an exact match to cater for that. (Don't know what the standard says regarding people with longer names, such as Andrew Albert Christian Edward Mountbatten-Windsor)

 

[jmh59]

They don't have separate fields for given and family names? That's uncommon.

I need to check as it's not me. It might be a field for surname and one for given names, the given one being a max of 28 characters and his names come to 29 but he can at least remove one space as one name is hyphenated - so it just fits. I was more curious as to how widespread this is - he is of course checking with the airline. It just narks me seeing a system built lacking in ways such as this due to my lifetime of not building systems so stupidly! We had decades of issues with car insurance as my wife's first name is two words and she had all manner of combinations, none of which included the space. That at least is better these days.

As a funny aside, we once had a guy whose whole name was Ng. Just that. Fit that into surname + given name...

 

[AlterEgo]

As a funny aside, we once had a guy whose whole name was Ng. Just that. Fit that into surname + given name...

You generally use Mr for the first name (assuming that is his title) and Ng for the surname.

 

[jmh59]

You generally use Mr for the first name (assuming that is his title) and Ng for the surname.

The system (this was inn the 90's) would not allow it as salutation also had to be filled in, so Mr Mr Ng. They used a full stop as first name!

 

[etr221]

There is a well known piece in computing circles Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names (all believed, all false) - much circulated...

 

[Taunton]

As a funny aside, we once had a guy whose whole name was Ng. Just that. Fit that into surname + given name...

Common in the Far East, especially Indonesia.

A greater challenge is people with dual nationality, and thus two passports, with different names in each, needed for entry to the respective countries when going from one to the other, matching with return tickets with provision for only one name.

 

[Ediswan]

As a funny aside, we once had a guy whose whole name was Ng. Just that. Fit that into surname + given name...

For passport purposes, peers of the realm have only one name. Their passports are annotated accordingly. I don't recall which field this name goes in.

 

[Djgr]

I have a friend, whose company HR system wouldn't allow a new starter entry without a middle name.

So he had to make up an initial. H as it turns out!

 

[najaB]

I have a friend, whose company HR system wouldn't allow a new starter entry without a middle name.

In this day and age that is silly.

 

[jmh59]

I have a friend, whose company HR system wouldn't allow a new starter entry without a middle name.

So he had to make up an initial. H as it turns out!

The place I used to work at still adds letters to form a.n.other@ type email addresses where there is a clash but they mixed it so e.g. there may be an a.n.other, then an a.n.n.other and an a.n.other1 - good grief.

 

[Ediswan]

There is a well known piece in computing circles Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names (all believed, all false) - much circulated...

For a few years I looked after a 'people' directory for a multinational. We left it up to the local HR people to decide which name to use and how to represent it in ISO 8859-1. Accents were supported. Name changes were supported.

The place I used to work at still adds letters to form a.n.other@ type email addresses where there is a clash but they mixed it so e.g. there may be an a.n.other, then an a.n.n.other and an a.n.other1 - good grief.

The same company used numbers where there was no unique middle initial e.g. joe.7.bloggs. That sometimes caused problems when john.3.smith got promoted to a very senior job and sought to claim plain john.smith.

 

[Taunton]

I have a friend, whose company HR system wouldn't allow a new starter entry without a middle name.

So he had to make up an initial. H as it turns out!

I worked with an old IT system which wouldn't allow apostrophes within text fields, as this impacted some special character handling.

Then it got sold in Ireland, where about 33% of names have apostrophes in them,

 

[Ediswan]

I worked with an old IT system which wouldn't allow apostrophes within text fields, as this impacted some special character handling.

Then it got sold in Ireland, where about 33% of names have apostrophes in them,

One assumption I didn't see in the list linked above is that all European names start with a letter. That fails when you meet a 't Hooft.

 

[Taunton]

One assumption I didn't see in the list linked above is that all European names start with a letter. That fails when you meet a 't Hooft.

Another was not allowing capitals in the middle of an entry, thus McAlpine not allowed as such.

 

[etr221]

I have a friend, whose company HR system wouldn't allow a new starter entry without a middle name.

So he had to make up an initial. H as it turns out!

On this theme, the parents of Harry Truman (later U.S. President) thought he should have something in the middle, so gave him a middle name of S, so he is always known as Harry S Truman. But its not a middle initial, that's his name...

 

[alxndr]

Another was not allowing capitals in the middle of an entry, thus McAlpine not allowed as such.

Our system allows capitals in the middle, but whether they’re used or not is apparently at the mercy of whoever inputs it, so you may end up as “McDonald” or “Mcdonald”. We have relatives who have ended up as one of each.

 

[m0ffy]

For a few years I looked after a 'people' directory for a multinational. We left it up to the local HR people to decide which name to use and how to represent it in ISO 8859-1. Accents were supported. Name changes were supported.


The same company used numbers where there was no unique middle initial e.g. joe.7.bloggs. That sometimes caused problems when john.3.smith got promoted to a very senior job and sought to claim plain john.smith.

That reminds me of a British Telecoms company I worked for a few years ago.

 

[najaB]

That reminds me of a British Telecoms company I worked for a few years ago.

I also worked for a British Telecoms company as well. I was firstname.lastname@britishtelecomms.co.uk and there was firstname.3.lastname@britishtelecomms.co.uk - we never did figure out who firstname.2.lastname@britishtelecomms.co.uk was.

 

[PeterC]

When I first started work with an old school main frame we had separate fields to enter the full name and the name as it was to appear when addressing correspondence.

I do recall one custome, a Palestinian, with multiple spellings of her name. Formal documentation had transliterated her name from Arabic to Hebrew script and then to Latin alphabet. This bore no relation to the way she wrote her own name in Latin script.

 

[m0ffy]

I also worked for a British Telecoms company as well. I was firstname.lastname@britishtelecomms.co.uk and there was firstname.3.lastname@britishtelecomms.co.uk - we never did figure out who firstname.2.lastname@britishtelecomms.co.uk was.

I had quite an uncommon name, and I had firstname.2.surname. Surprisingly enough, firstname.surname lived three streets away from me and parked in the same yard.

 

[Cdd89]

Lufthansa gives a (typically german) censorious notice at check-in to "ensure your name matches your passport in future", for things like not having entering the middle name on initial booking. But it's never actually a problem.

 

[styles]

Lufthansa gives a (typically german) censorious notice at check-in to "ensure your name matches your passport in future", for things like not having entering the middle name on initial booking. But it's never actually a problem.

It's the kind of thing I'd want written confirmation of though. At best the airline lets you on and it's fine but at worst you end up arguing with your travel insurance company trying to get them to pay out for rebooking your flight at some extortionate last-minute fare.