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There is a man in Australia (born in New Zealand) who holds the Guinness World Record for having the world’s longest name. He goes by Laurence Watkins but there are 2,253 unique words in his name.
He recently went on camera to read all 2,253 words in his name. You might think ‘how long could it take to read the world’s longest name?’ and the answer to that question is ‘way more time than I have today.’
Laurence Watkins didn’t always own the record for having the world’s longest name. But he decided to legally change his name in March 1990, adding a few thousand words to his name, and has since owned the record by a mile.
Man With World’s Longest Name Reads It On Camera
In a recent article, GWR states they asked him to read his full name on camera. He did, of course, and it took over an hour for him to do so.
I 1000% do NOT expect anyone to sit here and listen to him read out his name in its entirety. However, if you do, more power to you. I just lack the requisite attention span to watch him read his name for over an hour.
Laurence told GWR that when he got married it took the officiant 20 minutes to read the name. Somehow it took him 3x that span if time to read it himself. Frankly, I’m not convinced he knows his entire name. How could he?
As for the actual process of changing his name back in 1990, that sounded like a tall task. It cost several hundred dollars to get someone to type the whole thing up. The name was rejected before later being approved.
All of this reminded me of one of my favorite TikToks, by the way:
@ksand77 LONGEST PLACE NAME IN THE WORLD 🇳🇿 Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu #newzealand #bucketlist