The Longest Last Name in the World Has 666 Letters and One Very Patient Owner

Researchers found that people with easy-to-pronounce names are judged more favorably, so spare a thought for whoever owns the longest last name in the world.

That name belongs to Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff Sr., a German-born typesetter from Philadelphia.

In one real-world test, lawyers with easier names held higher positions at their firms. If "Colquhoun" can cost you points, imagine introducing yourself with a surname that fills a whole paragraph. So is it even real?

It is, and the story is a good one. You'll see all 26 of his first names, a plain-English translation of the surname, and its Guinness timeline. Then come other record holders and tips for tracing your own family name. For more quick history bites, Nibble is a good place to start.

Here's the short version before we get to the shepherds and the spaceship.

• Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff Sr. holds the longest last name in the world.
• Guinness counts his full personal name at 747 characters.
• He had 26 first names, one per letter, Adolph to Zeus.
• His surname reads like a long German sentence about his ancestors.
• Guinness's official record page now lists a different man, counted by number of names.

Nibble's Genealogy topic and trivia games turn stories like this into facts you'll remember. Keep reading for the full story.

The longest last name in the world belongs to Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff Sr. He was born in Bergedorf, now part of Hamburg, Germany, and later made his home in Philadelphia, where he worked as a typesetter.

Old records disagree on his birthday. Philadelphia death records list August 4, 1914, and he died on October 24, 1997.

His full name started with 26 given names, one for each letter of the alphabet, in perfect order:

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.

Then came the surname. The most reliable published version runs 666 letters. Guinness World Records counts his full name, first names and all, at 747 characters. So in this article, 666 means the surname alone, and 747 means the whole thing.

How did he sign a check? Mostly with a shortcut. He often wrote "Hubert B. Wolfe + 666, Sr.," and later Guinness Book editions listed forms like "Wolfe+585, Senior." Day to day, he used the 35-letter version: Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff.

When a reporter asked about it, Hubert said that when somebody calls his name, "I don't have any trouble finding out who they mean."

At first glance, the long version looks like a random string of letters. It's actually a run-on German sentence glued into one word.

The short, 35-letter part gets the cleanest translation. One name's institute reads it as a wolf slayer living in a stone house in a mountain village.

The rest gets wild. Here's the family legend in plain words:

Long ago, careful shepherds guarded their well-fed sheep from greedy enemies. Their ancestors had come to Earth ages earlier in a light-powered spaceship, after crossing the stars to find a planet where their people could settle and live in peace.

Hubert provided a version of this story himself in a 1964 Associated Press piece. Wordplay writer Dmitri Borgmann called the German untranslatable because of its grammar errors, then offered his own paraphrase in his 1965 book 'Language on Vacation.'

According to Hubert, his great-grandfather created the surname in the 1800s. Family history or family comedy? Probably both. If the legend is true, his family tree has a branch in outer space, which puts a funny spin on the old question: are we all related?

Hubert's name made the papers long before Guinness noticed. It appeared in the 1938 Philadelphia phone book on page 1292, column 3, line 17.

In 1952, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Frank Brookhouser was reporting on Hubert's voter registration and dropped the "u" in "Hausen." Hubert was quick to send a correction, and Time magazine picked up the story. He stayed committed to every single letter.

Here's how the record played out over the years:

1. 1938: The name appears in the Philadelphia phone book.
2. 1952: The Inquirer misspells it, and Hubert sets the record straight.
3. June 1964: An AP story spreads the 666-letter version across the country.
4. 1975–1985: The Guinness Book lists him as having the longest personal name.
5. 1990: The "longest name" category has disappeared from the book.
6. 2021 onward: Guinness puts his 747-character name back in the spotlight.

A decade is an impressive duration for a listing in a book that updates every year. Why did Guinness pause the category? The most repeated reason is that it didn't want to encourage parents to give babies extreme names.

Here's the twist. At present, the official Guinness page for the longest personal name lists Laurence Watkins of New Zealand, who has 2,253 unique names. Guinness still celebrates Hubert's 747-character name on its social channels.

So Watkins has the most names, and Hubert has the longest surname. Guinness has edited its pages over time, so a listing you saw previously might look different today.

Paper forms, typesetting machines, and early computers were built for names like Smith. For Hubert, that meant a daily challenge.

That 1964 AP story reported that an IBM computer at the John Hancock insurance company could process a million policies but refused to handle his. His utility company only spelled the name properly after he said he wouldn't pay until they did. They printed it on three lines.

His son, Hubert Jr., was born in Philadelphia in 1952 and could say the surname by age three. The family letterhead stuck to the 35-letter version.

The problem hasn't gone away. In 2013, Hawaii resident Janice "Lokelani" Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele found that her 36-character surname didn't fit on her driver's license, which dropped a letter and her first name. After she went public, Hawaii changed its policy to allow 40 characters for first and last names and 35 for middle names.

Government paperwork is the usual troublemaker, since each agency sets its own character limits. A Social Security card gives first and middle names one line of 26 spaces, and the last name and suffix get another 26. Anything longer gets squeezed or cut.

Standardized tests have the same problem on paper. Bubble answer sheets come with a fixed number of boxes, and some test instructions tell students to print their last name, or as much as will fit." Some older SAT sheets asked for only the first six letters.

Even ordering coffee can turn into a spelling bee. Baristas scribble names on cups fast, so long or unfamiliar names often come back mangled. That's why plenty of people with long names keep a short "coffee name" ready.

Job hunting raises the stakes. Online job applications usually have fixed name fields, and many companies use applicant tracking systems, software that sorts résumés before a person sees them. A cut-off name can make an application look incomplete, so check the preview before you hit submit.

Why does this keep happening? Many databases cap how many characters a name field can hold, so anything longer gets cut. That's how people with long names end up with errors on boarding passes and bank cards.

Some websites reject unusual entries, too, and security checks built to block bots don't always expect a real person to type 36 letters into one box. Next time a form rejects your name, remember Hubert.

Hubert has company. People often mix up three separate titles: the longest last name, the longest first name, and the most names.

Laurence Watkins changed his name by deed poll at age 24. He worked at a city library and selected names from books, plus suggestions from coworkers. He literally built his name off library shelves, which makes it the most bookish record out there.

SnowOwl Sor-Lokken, a girl born in 1979, won a 1983 National Enquirer contest for America's longest name. Her Washington birth certificate joined "Snowowl" with a version of Hubert's surname, and the next Guinness Book reported her first name at 598 letters.

Her dad said he wanted to toss a wrench into government paperwork. Mission accomplished.

Then there's Rhoshandiatellyneshiaunneveshenk Koyaanisquatsiuth Williams. Guinness has called hers the longest name on a birth certificate, and in 1984 her father tried to extend her first name to 1,019 letters. That longer version gets shared a lot online, but the proof behind it is thin.

Long last names are normal in plenty of families.

Hawaiian names often carry layered meanings, and Janice has said hers references her family's origins. Spanish and Portuguese traditions often give people two surnames, one from each parent.

Thai surnames tend to run long because each family's name was meant to be unique. In parts of South India, a full name can include a village name and a father's name.

For scale, Hubert's surname beats Smith by 661 letters. For the backstory, here's a guide to where last names come from, plus a look at the most common surname in the world.

Here's how to track down the story behind your own family name:

1. Google every spelling you can find, since clerks misspell long names constantly, just like the Inquirer did.
2. Check if an ancestor shortened the name, the way some records list Hubert's family as Wolfstern.
3. Pull birth certificates, census records, military forms, and old phone books to see earlier spellings.
4. Ask older relatives how the name sounded out loud, since their answers can link records that look nothing alike on the page.
5. Save every relevant record with its source, so you can correct your family tree later.

A June family reunion is a great time to ask those questions. New to all this? This guide on genealogy for beginners walks you through the first steps.

Hubert's 26 given names also make a fun case study in why we have middle names. And if your family passed down a symbol along with its name, read up on what a family crest is.

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Some surnames run longer than sentences

Nibble digs into how names like that came to be

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The longest last name in the world belongs to a Philadelphia typesetter with 26 first names and a 666-letter surname about shepherds and a spaceship. His name survived typos, stubborn computers, and a Guinness category that came and went. If stories like his make you want more, Nibble keeps them coming.

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