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Time for a Kafkaesque story: Initially, when I applied for a bank account under the name of "Jack Middle Chen," they listed my name as "Jackmiddlechen." Just o
by howlingfantods 8y ago
Time for a Kafkaesque story:
Initially, when I applied for a bank account under the name of "Jack Middle Chen," they listed my name as "Jackmiddlechen." Just one name, like Cher. Chinese names don't have spaces so it made sense, but this of course made it impossible for me to pay online, where they require family and surnames separately.
So I went back and asked them to differentiate between my first, middle and last names, so they added spaces, without changing the order. So my name became "Jack Middle Chen," where "Jack" was my last name and "Middle Chen" was my first name.
So I went back and asked them to change the order, because it's obviously wrong. So they changed my name to "Chen Middle Jack." Where Chen is now my correct family name, but my new first name is now "Middle Jack."
So I went back and asked them to change my first name to "Jack" because "Middle" is my middle name. But of course, Chinese don't have middle names so they don't have a field for that. So my first name then became "Jack Middle." Which is fine.
The issue is that my names now all had spaces. Chinese names don't have spaces, as mentioned, so to separate my alpha numeric names, they literally had to insert the space character into my name. So when I try to shop online, my name doesn't match because my official registered name has several space character somewhere in there, encoded in a weird way.
So at this point, I go back and try to clarify what my name actually is in their records. I tell them just to make it look exactly like my passport. So now my name is "JACK MIDDLE CHEN," all caps. I still have no idea what my first name and last name is but I've given up shopping online with this card, and since it matches my passport exactly, I can use it at the bank, which is good enough for me.
*Name altered for anonymity
- zinckiwi 8y agoPulling a Cher and just changing your name _to_ Jackmiddlechen probably would have been easiest.
- nailer 8y agoIf Chinese people don't have middle names, why not ask for 'Jack Chen'?
- kalleboo 8y agoDunno about China, but in Japan your bank name is supposed to match your government name (for foreigners, this means your passport) for money laundering regulatory reasons, although this isn’t always enforced.
- fvdessen 8y agoThat would be fun for me as the first word on the name field in my passport is my nobility title, which is not supposed to be part of my name; On my national ID it’s in a different field.
- TrickyRick 8y agoFun anecdote: In Sweden it's not uncommon for people to have their middle name first in the passport. For example a person named Gustav Sven Andersson might actually have Sven as his "first name". This of course causes problems in the US which assumes everyone's first name is the one that comes first in their passport. I have several friends who have just given up and go by a different name in the US (ESTA, immigration, plane tickets etc).
- jsjohnst 8y agoAre you paying online with a credit card? What type of sites are you having issues with? In a normal online payment gateway, there is no facility to verify the cardholder’s name so I’m curious what type of transaction you are doing.