Man has longest personal name, it’d take roughly 20 minutes to tell

For most people, introductions are a fleeting formality, an exchange of names accomplished in seconds. However, for Laurence Watkins, this simple task becomes an extraordinary feat of endurance.

To recite his full name, all 2,253 words, demands 20 minutes.

This was demonstrated at his first wedding in 1991, when the marriage celebrant pre-recorded the exhaustive list. As guests wandered the venue, champagne in hand, the recording played until, at last, the moment arrived for Watkins to say, “I do.”

The 60-year-old retired armed security guard, from Auckland, New Zealand, holds the world record for the longest personal name, a title recently awarded by Guinness World Records when reclassifying his original record for longest Christian name, approved in 1992.

Born Laurence Gregory Watkins in 1965, the young New Zealander was fascinated by “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!,” a TV show that showcased extraordinary facts about remarkable people, places and events around the world. This interest soon extended to the Guinness book of world records which he read cover to cover, sparking an ambition to feature in its pages.

“I was amazed by these record holders – the world’s fastest man, the tallest, the strongest. People with the world’s longest hair, the longest fingernails and so on,” he told CNN. But he soon came to the conclusion that, as “a normal person with no particular talent,” his best chance lay with creating the world’s longest name.

“The only other option was the biggest height difference between spouses. Back then, the record holder was a South African man the same height as me, 6-foot-2, whose wife was 3 feet. So, unless I could marry somebody shorter, it wasn’t happening.”

Watkins, now an Australian citizen living in Sydney, spent the next month deciding his new name and paid a typist 400 New Zealand dollars ($230) to record it on paper.

He drew inspiration from Latin and Old English names, famous figures, the “Name Your Baby” books at the Auckland Library, where he worked, and the Māori dictionary.

Despite having no Māori cultural ties, Watkins said he “admires people who speak the language” of the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. “But the names can be quite long, which was a challenge on the typewriter, at a time before modern computers,” he added.

Other choices were Love, Florence and Basil Brush, after the British TV puppet fox, along with several Samoan names suggested by friends, three Japanese names and two Chinese names including “Xiao” spelled as “Shal.”

He also added Gaylord in honour of the 1984 Olympic gold medallist and US gymnast Mitch Gaylord. “He was a very handsome guy, so I stole his surname,” Watkins said. “But my favourite name is AZ2000, meaning I have more than 2,000 names from A to Z.”

With his name typed across six pages, marked by the occasional typo that was too difficult to correct with a typewriter, Watkins submitted a legal application to change his name in 1990.

Auckland District Court accepted his request, but he was knocked back at the final hurdle by the Registrar General.

“The registrar said the only way I’m going to get my new name is if I take him to the High Court,” Watkins said.

“The government didn’t have any legal basis to deny my name change at the time, so I won.”

Watkins was granted his new name and received a Guinness World Record certificate for the world’s longest Christian name at 2,310 words two years later, in March 1992.

Last month, this was recounted and recategorized as the “world’s longest personal name” with a corrected total of 2,253 individual names to more accurately reflect his record.

“Not all of my names are Christian,” Watkins said. “And they have combined the records, I assume for clarity. Otherwise, there is a conundrum where you have somebody with the longest single name confused with me, who has more than 2,000 names overall.”

For everyday use, he now shortens his name to Laurence Alon Aloy Watkins and signs his signature as Watkins V, meaning fifth generation. But his full name fills seven pages on his birth certificate, and his original passport required six extra pages.

“With digital passports, my new one just shows my shorter name and says that I have another 2,249 on the observations page,” he said. “But if I travel, I still have to take a copy of my birth certificate with me in case anybody asks to see it.”

Watkins said he took a “quirky and eccentric” approach to changing his name, but not everyone shares his enthusiasm. “It’s nice to have something unique,” he said. “But others don’t see the funny side, or they can’t fathom that I really do have that many names.”

On one of four occasions he ran for Auckland Mayor, he stood under his names Lord Earl Duke King Saint Watkins. Other titles he took include Baron, Pope, and Count.

Following Watkins’ High Court triumph, New Zealand changed two laws that closed the door behind him.

Today, citizens are prohibited from adopting names that include official titles or ranks, offensive terms, numbers, symbols, or anything longer than 70 characters including spaces.

Watkins said he has no regrets about his chosen monikers. “If I were crazy enough to change my name again, I’d have to part with 98% of them under the new law, and I’d lose my Guinness World Record which was the entire point,” he said.

Thanks to the new laws, his legacy is firmly secured – at least in New Zealand.