The longest personal name is 747 characters long, and belongs to Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff Sr. (b. 4 August 1914, Germany) who passed away on 24 October 1997, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA.
Although he went by Hubert, that was actually the eighth name in the list. He had a name for each letter of the alphabet, followed by a 597-character surname.
Hubert's name in full, (without senior) was Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvonangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolftausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvanderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchenachdiesternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneurassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvonandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum.
The exact length and spelling of Hubert's name has often been the subject of confusion as it's been understandably misspelled many times over the years.
Hubert's son, given the same name, was born in Philadelphia in 1952 and was able to pronounce his surname in full by the age of three.
The family did often shorten their surname to Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff. And Hubert would also write it as "Wolfe+666", "Wolfe+585" and "Hubert+590", again pointing to the various ways he spelled it over the years.
It's been claimed that Hubert's great-grandfather composed the surname in the 19th Century.
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