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Hacker News user patio11's list of falsehoods programmers believe about names[1] is always fun to be thrown into these discussions. Follow-up from this John Gra

• eesmith 3y ago
  https://shinesolutions.com/2018/01/08/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names-with-examples/ https://shinesolutions.com/2018/01/08/falsehoods-programmers... gives examples. One counter-example for "People have, at this point in time, one full name which they go by." I learned from the 2020 election concerned the Georgia voter fraud claim that someone used the name "James Blalock" to vote, years after he died in January 2006. Thing is, it was his 96-year-old widow, "Mrs. James Blalock Jr.", who voted. That was the name she registered as, back when using "Mrs. <Husband>" was a common custom.
• lostlogin 3y ago
  “People have exactly one full name which they go by.” My case was actually this. I took a call from a person with a name that was one word. Not first name, not last name, just one word. I never found them in the system as the name wasn’t in the database as far as I could tell. They were quite irritated.
  • jbverschoor 3y ago
    That’s a different problem. I’ve word as the full name. People can have multiple full names.
    • lostlogin 3y ago
      Are these any rules with names? Having nothing at all might be something that doesn’t happen. Edit: Nope, rule 40.
  • paranoidrobot 3y ago
    Do you mean they had a mononym? Famous examples but for stage names are Madonna or Cher. I knew someone who had one that has a mononym and would regularly run into issues. I believe they did get their passport issued with their mononym, but it caused all sorts of problems with international travel. Some airlines would require duplicating their name for first and last, then cause issues during check in, security or immigration, because of the mismatch between passport and ticket/visa/etc.
    • lostlogin 3y ago
      > Do you mean they had a mononym? I do. The idea of a plane ticket for ‘Cher Cher’ is quite funny, though presumably wasn’t for her.
      • bee_rider 3y ago
        If someone has a mononym and a system needs two names, the accepted convention should be to use “The” as their first name.
        • lostlogin 3y ago
          This would be good as a ‘title’ option. We get a fleet of military ranks, honorific crap and religious stuff. I’d like to see some options like ‘The.
        • teo_zero 3y ago
          Why "the"? What is so special about this herbal beverage in French, or the adjective meaning hot in Irish? I suspect you are applying just a variation of the same every-name-must-follow-my-arbitrary-rules game. You're trying to correct the assumption that everybody has of a first name and a surname with the equally wrong assumption that everybody understands an English word.
          • bee_rider 3y ago
            Just to be clear, I’m suggesting it because “The Cher” is clearly the funniest way of satisfying the two names requirement.