[benmller313]

Would it be a good thing if businesses could be registered in all international character sets? I could see this causing problems. Government officials are only going to be needed to speak the official languages. How would they even refer to these entities they can't read?

[Ekaros]

I wonder how many officials are capable to inputting name correctly from paper form if it is written from international character sets... Sometimes you have to limit people's freedom to protect them from risks.

[kelnos]

Given that accepting non-Latin characters would likely require an overhaul of the business registration office's IT systems, they could also add a field where the registrant could additionally input the name using IPA[0] or even just a romanized/anglicized version. Someone who isn't familiar with the native alphabet or language could refer to that.

East/Southeast Asian and Slavic names are routinely mispronounced, even when transliterated to the Latin alphabet. This isn't even a problem unique to non-Latin alphabets. I butcher the pronunciation of some French names, for example, and with many Scandinavian words I don't even know where to start.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabe...

[ceejayoz]

> How would they even refer to these entities they can't read?

The same way they already handle it in court when people have unusual names?

Some poor California judge is gonna have to figure out "X Æ A-12" when the kid files for emancipation.

[Rule35]

I wish I'd been named drop tables; or something to interfere with search engines and newspapers. My friends could call me anything so it wouldn't matter socially.

Is Prince's legal name [Insert Symbol Here], or is it 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince'?

[skissane]

> Is Prince's legal name [Insert Symbol Here], or is it 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince'?

He never changed his legal name, only his stage name.

Governments won't let you legally change your name to just anything. If the computer systems they use to generate drivers licenses and passports can't accept your new name, you can't have it. While the rules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, very often, bureaucrats and/or judges have to review and approve your new name, and they will reject names that are unpronounceable, cannot be written in the standard alphabet, are offensive, or are just plain too weird. English-speaking countries generally speaking are relatively liberal on choosing names; some European countries are much more restrictive, even telling parents "you can't name your child that because it is not on our list of approved names".

Actually, some states here in Australia ban the use of "Prince" as a name (e.g [0]). That's because it is considered a royal title, not a name. So if Prince had been born in Australia (Prince was not just a stage name, it was his legal first name) he could never have been called that. However, although you can't legally call your child that, it still can be your legal name if you immigrate from a jurisdiction in which that name is allowed. (Interesting hypothetical: what if Prince had moved to Australia and had a son that he wanted to call Prince Jr? Probably the bureaucracy would have denied it, but you can appeal to the courts, and there's a chance the courts might decide it would be legitimate to make an exception in such a case.)

[0] https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/births/naming-your-child/naming-r...

[jlawer]

Isn’t that now a Texas judge?