my name is too long

well my legal name that is. my parents named me reena (actually i think it was my brother who picked the name reena) after i was born. going with family tradition, dad attached an suffix to my first name. on top of that, in our culture, your dad's name is your middle name (so people know who you belong to :P if you're female and get married, your middle name is *supposed* to change to your husband's name.) so my legal first name is 11 letters long. my middle name (dad's name) is 10 letters long. my last name is 6 letters long. 27 letters, actually 29 characters counting the spaces.

in elementary school, my legal name was on the attendance list. made for some interesting looks by supply teachers. "uh.. reeeeeenaaaa.." yeah, reena. then i attended middle school where they had a "known as name" column. relief. this carried on through high school. then university hit and somehow the suffix of my legal first name became my middle name. my dad's name was completely dropped! :)

which brings me to today. i had to bring in my birth certificate to school because it's the only id i have that has my full legal name. everything else says reena. the reason behind it is dad's very insistent that my legal first name be on my degree. i think he just wants his name to be on it :P for me to change the name i had to bring id showing that i really am who i am asking to be.. which meant changing my name at the registrar. so i had to fill out a form except my legal name didn't fit in the boxes provided. it could only fit my first name. dad's name was too long. heh. the lady at the registrar had a good giggle over it :)