Billie Eilish and Pablo Picasso may have long full names, but neither comes close to Australian man Laurence Watkins, who legally changed his name to include more than 2,000 middle names, earning him a Guinness World Record.
Born in New Zealand, Laurence made history in March 1990 when he added 2,253 unique words to his legal name, setting the record for the world’s longest personal name. He said he had always been fascinated by unusual world records and wanted to hold one himself.
“I read the Guinness World Records book from cover to cover to see if there was a record I could beat,” he recalled. “The only one I had a chance at beating was adding more names than the current holder.”
The process wasn’t easy. Computers were rare at the time, so Watkins paid a few hundred dollars to have the massive list typed out before submitting it to the District Court. When the Registrar General initially rejected the application, he appealed to the High Court, which ultimately ruled in his favour.
Not long after, New Zealand changed its laws to prevent similar record attempts.
Watkins, who worked at a city library, said he chose names from books and colleagues’ suggestions. His favourite: AZ2000, symbolising that his list includes names from A to Z — and more than 2,000 of them.
The record originally stood at 2,310 names but was later revised to 2,253 under updated Guinness guidelines.
