Meet Mr Ottovordemgentschenfelde, the longest-named German

Anyone who has learned German is painfully familiar with its seemingly never-ending words. But spare a thought for the person with the country’s longest name: Bernd Ottovordemgentschenfelde.

“It never fits into official forms. Filling out bank slips is a nightmare. Sometimes I have to use short-cuts, especially on credit cards,” the 45-year-old Ottovordemgentschenfelde told mass circulation Bild.

The paper quoted Judith Schwanke, an expert in names from Leipzig University, as saying: “With 24 characters without spaces or hyphens, this is far ahead of any other names.”

Despite his daily difficulties — introducing himself on the phone takes forever, he complained — Ottovordemgentschenfelde himself was content with his unusual name.

“It’s great. In this way, I’m completely unique. I would never want to be called Krause or Mueller,” he said, using common German names.

And he revealed that his name could have been even longer.

“My father wanted to give me a double-barrelled name but my mother successfully talked him out of it.”

As for his wife and children, they simply call him “Otto.”