Laurence Watkins has the unusual distinction of having a whopping 2,253 unique words that make up his moniker. Fascinated by the quirky unusual records that some people went for, he wanted to see if there was a Guinness World Record he could beat. The only one he had a chance at beating was adding more names than the current record holder. Changing his name wound up to be a lengthy and expensive process, starting off with paying someone a few hundred dollars to type the name up for him. He then submitted his application and it was accepted by the District Court, but rejected by the Register General. So, he took his case to the High Court in New Zealand (more expense) and won. The court determined that he should be allowed to change his name. However, to stop such legal frivolity from occurring again, the authorities changed two laws in order to stop other people doing something similar in future. Laurence, who worked at the city library at the time, chose his names from books, although some were chosen for him by his co-workers. It actually takes 30 minutes for him to say his full name. If you want to hear the man with the world’s longest personal name reading it out, settle in, because you’re going to be here for a while. You can find it on YouTube.
