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A couple jobs ago, I worked on writing an API client for a CRM system that supported 2GB for most of the text fields (name, address line 1, job title, etc...). It also offered up 99 "custom field" text fields, also allowing up to 2GB each.

I'd considered base64-encoding my ripped DVD collection, and using them to store another backup copy for me.

He would be too busy begging numerous agencies to handle his name to beg to differ with you.

Is there a picture of the ID page of that man's passport? Or of a driver's license or similar?

Whatever is on that is his actual name.

I love that the guy's occupation was "typesetter".

I'm not sure his name is long enough for this to be an issue.

The URL uses a shortened version, his full name on the page is:

Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvorangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolfhunderttausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvonderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgenachtmittungsteinundsiebeniridiumelektrischmotorsgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchennachbarschaftdersternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneuerassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvorandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum Sr.

Active Directory would cry.

He should have added a few numbers in there to really throw off some login systems.

And spaces.

The exception proves the rule. There is no way to read the description of the translation of the surname without coming to the conclusion that this was name was chosen for mischief, outside of the bounds of reasonable human societal expectations. Mischief is fine and all but there is no authentic "gotcha" compulsatory requirement for society to accomodate the chaos resulting from such a mischievous personal preference. (and I say this as someone who has legally changed his name twice)

tl;dr Make you bed; lie in it.

For conventions of the English language, this is an exception, but not in other languages. Arabic names have up to five components. A 128-byte limit leaves an average of 25 bytes for each component. Consider that Arabic script in UTF-8 consumes 2 bytes per glyph, and graphemes in Arabic are compositions of these glyphs.

For a more extreme example, consider conventions of Japanese. Middle names do not exist in Japanese. In fact, middle names are impossible to input into the 戸籍 (family registry). Forms in Japan are designed around the assumption that each person has exactly two names. Many Europeans would be unable to input their full name in such system. In this example, it'd be unreasonable to suggest most Europeans are acting "outside of the bounds of reasonable human societal expectations".

In general, the most effective solution I've seen for handling names is to have a single name field and treat it opaquely. If you need an inflection, ask for that separately.

> In general, the most effective solution I've seen for handling names is to have a single name field and treat it opaquely. If you need an inflection, ask for that separately.

Yes, in general. Though sometimes you need to know about specific parts of a name as interpreted in a specific cultural context.

Eg in Germany by law you need to register a family name when you get married, and your kids are going to have that family name, if you want it or not. (The parents don't necessarily have to have that name, eg the parents can opt for double-barrelled names or they can keep their old name. But the kids only get one family name and they all get the same name, and there are restrictions on which name you can pick.)

In contrast, here in Singapore they just give you a blank space in a form where you can put in your new baby's complete name as you please.

(OK, technically, you get multiple blank spaces, because you can eg give your kid a western name like Jay Random Smith and a Chinese name that is a completely separate name and doesn't need to have anything to do with the western name. I think you can also get eg a tamil name, if you want to etc.)

Compare Mr Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Theodor_zu_Guttenberg

And he's not even the guy with the longest name, and his parents did not make up his name to spite some length restrictions.

That surname is like 22 bytes

That's the shortened version. The full version of the surname is 666 characters.

I apologize, I should've read more of the article. My bad

I guess it kind of goes to the poster's point, since Wikipedia articles truncate at 255 bytes (Since that was the max size of a VARCHAR in mysql 3)

Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvorangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolfhunderttausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvonderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgenachtmittungsteinundsiebeniridiumelektrischmotorsgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchennachbarschaftdersternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneuerassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvorandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum Sr.