It happens (hopefully) every day: you’ve just sealed the deal and turned a prospect into a client, and now you need their passport to enter their exact name into your GDS.
You flip over the front cover, turn to their identification page, and then it hits you like a slap in the face:
There are way too many characters in their name(s), and there’s just no way you’re going to be able to fit them in all into the limited space of your GDS.
Here are six of the most common nationalities that you’ll probably struggle fitting into your GDS…
1. MADAGASCAR
It takes a long time to reach this paradise (yes the country, not the movie!), and an even longer time to input a Malagasy’s (someone from Madagascar) name into your system.
The current president of Madagascar, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, clocks up a decent 44 characters in his name.
2. INDIA
Indian nationals have pretty epic names, and every agent has at least once sat back and scratched their head thinking, “how on earth am I going to fit their name into Galileo?!”
In Indian culture, especially amongst the Tamils, a name isn’t just used to denote a person. Rather, it’s used to represent legacy, history, lineage, belief and more.
3. THAILAND
Not only can Thai names be hilarious (e.g., Pornsak Bang Bang and Dong Rak Sukchoke) – at least to us Aussies, but they can also be very, very long too.
Interestingly, many Thai’s with long surnames are often descended from royalty/nobility.
4. RUSSIA
Not only will you be met with the Cyrillic alphabet (and the latin alphabet equivalent) when you enter a Russian’s passport details into your computer, but you may also be met with a name that spans two full lines or more!
This is because in Russia it’s common for the father’s name to be used in the child’s name (followed by a -vich if it’s a boy or -ovna for a girl), making Russian names in general rather long.
5. BRAZIL
Brazilians lurve to shake their thangs all day and night long, which is probably due to their having as many characters in their names as hours in the day!
In fact, Latin Americans in general have really long names, with prime offenders coming from Argentina, Colombia and Chile.
6. KUWAIT
This oil-rich nation is pretty liberal when it comes to its naming convention, with many nationals sporting names that are 25+ characters long!
Conventionally, Arabic names have five parts: the first name, a characteristic of that person, the child’s parents, one of the 99 names for God and the child’s ancestry.