My entire "legal" name is "Aaron." (And now you know what my HN name means.) I was born with the usual three names. When I was thirty, years before 9/11 and DHS, I got a court order and dropped the middle and last. Because, OK?
Never a problem, often a conversation. Sometimes I'd have to spend a little effort to be sure it said "Aaron" on my driver license. Other areas like credit cards and employment I've been more flexible, going by "A Aaron" or "Aaron Aaron," etc.
SS used to call me "Aaron." At some point they renamed me to "UNK Aaron."
All fine.
Coming on two years ago, as part of a "pivot," I got my CDL, Commercial Driver License.
Up to this point my DL said "Aaron." During training my learners permit said "Aaron."
When it came time to take the CDL road test, the CDL office, separate in some way from the DMV, would not schedule my test.
"Because there must be something in the first and last name fields on the driver license."
Without investigating, I'm quite sure that they populate some CDL office record from some DMV record, and their software was written assuming that there must be two names and assuming that the DMV records would all have at least two names. But not three or more, because the programmer or requirements writer had personal experience with people without a middle name.
So I had to go back to the DMV and get my driver license changed to something else.
It too a while, phone calls, "can't you just ..." etc.
The clerk finally agreed to list me as "Unknown Aaron." Which, note, is not my legal name, just what the DMV agreed to call me. So my legal name and "wallet" name are not the same.
Now the CDL office recognized me as "Unknown Aaron." Took my test, got my permanent CDL. Which says "Unknown Aaron."
Hired on with a company which knows me as "Unknown Aaron," because they have to use my CDL name because the feds know me that way now.
Which means my health and other insurance knows me that way.
I was tempted to go with a single name when I was forced to legally change my full name to meet ID requirements for a driver's license.
My birth certificate name is patterned like Andrew Bruce-Carlos Denis-Edward Fatherson. After my parents split, I had many variations. E.g. school knowing me as Andrew Charles Motherson, my bank as Andrew Bruce Motherson, etc.
Every official document was something different, so I had an official change to get the most common variants in a close-enough form that still fits on most forms, i.e. Andrew Bruce Carlos Motherson.
It still feels like a missed opportunity to go as simple as possible, and shed some family baggage.
Never a problem, often a conversation. Sometimes I'd have to spend a little effort to be sure it said "Aaron" on my driver license. Other areas like credit cards and employment I've been more flexible, going by "A Aaron" or "Aaron Aaron," etc.
SS used to call me "Aaron." At some point they renamed me to "UNK Aaron."
All fine.
Coming on two years ago, as part of a "pivot," I got my CDL, Commercial Driver License.
Up to this point my DL said "Aaron." During training my learners permit said "Aaron."
When it came time to take the CDL road test, the CDL office, separate in some way from the DMV, would not schedule my test.
"Because there must be something in the first and last name fields on the driver license."
Without investigating, I'm quite sure that they populate some CDL office record from some DMV record, and their software was written assuming that there must be two names and assuming that the DMV records would all have at least two names. But not three or more, because the programmer or requirements writer had personal experience with people without a middle name.
So I had to go back to the DMV and get my driver license changed to something else.
It too a while, phone calls, "can't you just ..." etc.
The clerk finally agreed to list me as "Unknown Aaron." Which, note, is not my legal name, just what the DMV agreed to call me. So my legal name and "wallet" name are not the same.
Now the CDL office recognized me as "Unknown Aaron." Took my test, got my permanent CDL. Which says "Unknown Aaron."
Hired on with a company which knows me as "Unknown Aaron," because they have to use my CDL name because the feds know me that way now.
Which means my health and other insurance knows me that way.
Which means my doctors know me that way.
So thanks, anonymous programmer.