Sandra Williams, from Texas, wanted to make sure her daughter’s name stood out, but instead of coming up with an unusual name, she decided to focus on the length, giving her baby daughter a 1,019 letter long name.
On September 12, 1984, when she gave birth to her daughter, she and her partner wrote Rhoshandiatellyneshiaunneveshenk Koyaanisquatsiuth Williams on her birth certificate.
But after three weeks, Sandra and her partner felt the name wasn’t long enough, so they filed an amendment which made it 1,019 letters long. They also added a 36-letter middle name.
After the change, her name became Rhoshandiatellyneshiaunneveshenkescianneshaimondrischlyndasaccarnae renquellenendrasamecashaunettethalemeicoleshiwhalhinive’onchellecaundenesh eaalausondrilynnejeanetrimyranaekuesaundrilynnezekeriakenvaunetradevonneya vondalatarneskcaevontaepreonkeinesceellaviavelzadawnefriendsettajessicanneles ciajoyvaelloydietteyvettesparklenesceaundrieaquenttaekatilyaevea’shauwneorali aevaekizzieshiyjuanewandalecciannereneitheliapreciousnesceverroneccalovelia tyronevekacarrionnehenriettaescecleonpatrarutheliacharsalynnmeokcamonaeloies alynnecsiannemerciadellesciaustillaparissalondonveshadenequamonecaalexetiozetia quaniaenglaundneshiafrancethosharomeshaunnehawaineakowethauandavernellchishankcarl inaaddoneillesciachristondrafawndrealaotrelleoctavionnemiariasarahtashabnequcka gailenaxeteshiataharadaponsadeloriakoentescacraigneckadellanierstellavonnemyiat angoneshiadianacorvettinagodtawndrashirlenescekilokoneyasharrontannamyantoniaaquin ettesequioadaurilessiaquatandamerceddiamaebellecescajamesauwnneltomecapolotyoajohny aetheodoradilcyana.
The girl’s new birth certificate was 2 feet long. Her friends and family just started calling her Jamie. At age 12, Jamie and her mom appeared on Oprah in 1997 where they shocked everyone with the name choice.
Sandra explained why she gave her daughter such a long name. “I had to do something to break a Guinness World Record. I had to make sure that her name was going to be unique,” she told Oprah.
“I didn’t want her name to be like anybody else.
“Her name had to be different and I had to be in the Guinness book.”
Sandra said it took her about six months to come up with the tongue-twisting name, which features a combination of relatives, cars and films. Jamie herself struggled to learn the name. Sandra said she had to record the name on a tape and play it back to her repeatedly.
Despite the difficulties, Jamie said she loved her unique name as it made her famous in school and beyond. But not too long after, Texas changed its laws and said children could only be given a name that would fit within the ‘name’ box on the birth certificate form.
Jamie did break a Guinness World Record with her unusual name. The Guinness World Record for the longest name had previously dated back to 1914. Hubert Blaine, who died in 1997, had a 747-letter name.
There’s so much more to names than just being a means of identification. People have their own unique ways of selecting names for their children. Some parents choose to give unconventional names to their children, often inspired by movies, books, music and even the pandemic. In April 2020, an Indian couple named their newborn twins Corona and Covid because they “want the fear associated with these names to end and the public to focus on sanitation and hygiene.”
