Have you ever filled out an online form that requires your legal first name, and do so exactly, only to have an error stop the submittal because you haven’t filled out the name field correctly? Hello, my name is A, just A, and I did not anticipate a world of automated overlords when I chose it.
When I changed my name, the process used hard copies handed over to real people in-person. I checked legal guidance for restrictions, gathered precedent cases, and practiced my argument. I fully prepared for bureaucracy, but not a single person in the string of government workers even commented on choosing a single letter as a first name.
Unfortunately, one cannot argue with form fields, and user support cannot change the minimum number of letters that online programs require. If I use my legal first name, A, I often get errors—even my SEO plugin complains about the use of “A” in my slug! And if I use my preferred name, AJ, I don’t hear back from whatever organization I’m applying to.
I’m not trying to hide my identity: I’ve entered my entire name, both with my middle name in the middle name field and with my middle name also in the first name field. Nothing. (I won’t put in my middle name alone as my “legal” first name for good reason. Funny story: When prepping me for surgery, one poor hospital assistant had to reprint labels for all my paperwork because the intake administrator flipped my first and middle name. If I’d gone under anaesthesia with my forms like that, it could have lead to legal consequences for the hospital.)
So I’m left wondering, even when I don’t get an error, if screening bots boot me as a bot (ironic) and those forms never see human eyes. I’m not sure if that’s preferrable to the idea that hiring managers see my resumé and portfolio but choose not to contact me for editing and writing jobs when I’m highly qualified.
Do you have an unusual name that jams programs? What would you do in my position?
I’m Just A
My first name is the letter A
No seriously, it is
Cuz when I chose to change my name
I thought it was the biz
But now HR department
hiring software doesn’t see
how a person is a person with
the first name A, like me
Government—legal—healthcare forms
assume there’s a mistake
(They need more than A letter
for the field entry to take)
But names are just a construct made
with no length minimum
Despite how rare A letter is
mine’s not the only one
Too short, too long, no capitals
even the last name “Null”
rejected by these systems
that expect names to be dull
I won’t blame the computers
Programs just do as they’re tasked
Instead, when setting character count
The coders could have asked.
–AJG 2025