New Zealand, already known for having the world’s longest place name, can now also claim to have the person with the world’s longest surname!
After a lengthy legal battle decades ago, 60-year-old New Zealander Laurence Watkins, who now lives in Sydney, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest personal name.
Watkins’ full legal name is 2253 words long. It was first recognised in 1992 for the world’s longest Christian name but has now been revised to the world’s longest personal name.
He told 9News that he had always wanted to achieve a record. “I read the 1989 Guinness World Records from cover to cover and that was really the only record I could have a chance of beating,” he said.
When Watkins first applied to change his name, New Zealand had no law preventing him from adopting such an extraordinary title. Today, official names must be under 70 characters and cannot include official titles or ranks.
“I chose Lord, Duke, King and Saint as some of my names, just to push the limits,” he said. “One of the laws they changed after I won was that you couldn’t use a title as your name in New Zealand.”
His chosen favourite among the thousands of names is “AZ2000”. The court process was far from simple: after an initial approval, a registrar refused to issue his new name, forcing Watkins to take the matter to the High Court.
He eventually won, and his name now fills extra pages in both his passport and birth certificate.
His case prompted a change in New Zealand's naming laws, making it impossible for anyone else to break his record. Thank god.
*Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, is a 300m hill near Porangahau in Hawke's Bay on NZ's North island. This 85-character Māori name is also the longest place name in the world and translates to "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as 'landeater', played his flute to his beloved".