Meet the man with the world's longest name who had to win a legal battle to keep it

Did you know that Billie Eilish’s full name is actually Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell? Or Pablo Picasso, who we should really be calling Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.

Both are surprisingly long but sound like nicknames when compared to Australian man Laurence Watkins.

In March 1990, Laurence (born in New Zealand) literally made a name for himself by changing his legal name to include over 2,000 middle names. This earned him the Guinness World Records title for the longest personal name with 2,253 unique words in total.

Speaking to GWR, he explained: “I was always fascinated by the quirky unusual records that some people went for and I really wanted to be part of that scene. I read the Guinness World Records book from cover to cover to see if there was a record I could beat and the only one I had a chance at beating was adding more names than the current holder.”

It was a lengthy process, not helped by the fact that computers were far less commonplace than they are today, and he eventually paid a few hundred dollars for someone to type up the full list of names for him.

His legal application was accepted by the District Court but then got knocked back by the Registrar General. Laurence – like any spirited record breaker – didn’t give up though, and took his case to the High Court in New Zealand, who eventually sided with him.

They did change two laws not long after that though to stop others from doing something similar!

The record was originally awarded for 2,310 names but was later updated to 2,253 following a change to the record guidelines.

Laurence worked in the city library at the time and picked names out of books and through recommendations from co-workers. “My favourite name is AZ2000 meaning I have names from A-Z and I have 2000 names.”

He says people usually can’t take it in when he tells them how many names he has. The main challenge it’s caused him is with government departments, as they unsurprisingly can’t fit his full name on any forms of identification.

Will this record ever be broken? Who knows. But until then Laurence can proudly say he has something no other person out of the 8+ billion on Earth does!

Oh, and if you're wondering why we haven't included his full name here, it's because we'd still be typing now...