Don't Give Your Baby Long Name
The birth of a baby, especially the first one, would surely excite any parents and grandparents. Engulfed by the euphoria, they usually prepare the name for the baby months prior the birth. Not only the baby's parents, but also the grandparents.
Picture: Ran Zainuddin
Some parents, namely the young ones, are sometimes getting too excited with the present they received from God and end up giving too long name for their baby. Especially when the respective parents of the couple insist to attach the name they choose for the grandchild. And it would be kinda hard for the new parents to refuse.
I'm telling you, having too long name doesn't necessarily mean you'd get benefits. For my case, it brings me nothing but bad memories. When I had a national university entrance exam nearly two decades ago, it took me more than five minutes to complete writing down my name in digitally recognizable format. While other students had finished their first page of the test, I was still busy writing down my name.
The same case goes with the ID card, state documents, bank book, passport, and flight ticket. Since my name is too hell long (and to date I'm still wondering why my parents assigned me this very long name), there's always not enough space to write them all.
Once the bank refused to make me a new bank book (the old one was out of page) just because my latest ID card stated different abbreviation from the previous one. They made me close my account and open a new one based on the new abbreviated name in the new ID card. FYI, we had to renew our ID card every five years before the new regulation started kicking in some years ago.
Another bad experience is when I travelled abroad. The space in passport's first page isn't enough to contain my long name so the authorities just typed three of them and left out the last one in the extra page. The problem arises when the name written on my ticket is my full name. It always takes me extra time to explain the situation to the immigration officer. I was almost late to catch my plane that would bring me back to Surabaya from Hongkong just because the officer got suspicious of my passport.
When I complained to my parents about my oh-why so long name, they'd just smile and tell me that the name they gave me has a special meaning.
So folks, think twice -or even better, thrice- before assigning name to your newborn baby. Think about the difficulties your baby might encounter in the future if you give him/her too long name.
Picture: Ran Zainuddin
Some parents, namely the young ones, are sometimes getting too excited with the present they received from God and end up giving too long name for their baby. Especially when the respective parents of the couple insist to attach the name they choose for the grandchild. And it would be kinda hard for the new parents to refuse.
I'm telling you, having too long name doesn't necessarily mean you'd get benefits. For my case, it brings me nothing but bad memories. When I had a national university entrance exam nearly two decades ago, it took me more than five minutes to complete writing down my name in digitally recognizable format. While other students had finished their first page of the test, I was still busy writing down my name.
The same case goes with the ID card, state documents, bank book, passport, and flight ticket. Since my name is too hell long (and to date I'm still wondering why my parents assigned me this very long name), there's always not enough space to write them all.
Once the bank refused to make me a new bank book (the old one was out of page) just because my latest ID card stated different abbreviation from the previous one. They made me close my account and open a new one based on the new abbreviated name in the new ID card. FYI, we had to renew our ID card every five years before the new regulation started kicking in some years ago.
Another bad experience is when I travelled abroad. The space in passport's first page isn't enough to contain my long name so the authorities just typed three of them and left out the last one in the extra page. The problem arises when the name written on my ticket is my full name. It always takes me extra time to explain the situation to the immigration officer. I was almost late to catch my plane that would bring me back to Surabaya from Hongkong just because the officer got suspicious of my passport.
When I complained to my parents about my oh-why so long name, they'd just smile and tell me that the name they gave me has a special meaning.
So folks, think twice -or even better, thrice- before assigning name to your newborn baby. Think about the difficulties your baby might encounter in the future if you give him/her too long name.