FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - how would tsa/passport agency deal with certain names

Mar 24, 2014 | 5:53 am

#21

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Quote:

Originally Posted by saizai

My full legal name is "Sai"; I'm mononymous. (Proof.) To the best of my knowledge, I also have the shortest (personal, legal) name in the world.

My boarding pass (like the results of all poorly coded databases) lists this in a wide variety of ways — eg "SAI SAI", "MR SAI", "SIR SAI", "NFN SAI", "SAI NLN", etc etc.

So far, I have only once had trouble with the TSA (about this) — a STSO demanded that I furnish a second form of ID other than my passport, clearly stating that I would not be permitted to enter the checkpoint unless I did so (which is also clearly illegal, but I haven't bothered pursuing that).

Otherwise they (and customs) do a doubletake, which by now I can time pretty exactly and say "yes, that's correct", sometimes express surprise, and let me go on my way.

It's been in a major PITA with some things (like credit report agencies, Amazon Payments) and totally not a problem at all with others (like driver's license, passport, some of my bank accounts but not others).

There are some people whose only name is Zia. On passports from South and/or Central Asian countries, they too have just that, sometimes with things like FNU in another name field and sometimes nothing in the other name field.

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