[jltsiren]

My legal last name is "Sirén". When I was younger, I almost always used "Siren", because it was easier to type. Then, ~15 years ago, I started noticing that American websites sometimes rejected it, because they considered it inappropriate. Sometimes "Sirén" would work, sometimes it worked but caused minor annoyances, and sometimes it would not work for technical reasons.

Both versions work most of the time these days, but I still run into trouble once in a while no matter which name I use.

[10000truths]

Why would Siren be an inappropriate name?

[lostgame]

Someone who I know has the last name ‘Island’ and was unable to sign up for Facebook forever because they thought it was a fake last name.

Maybe ‘Siren’ is similar. It’s a pre-existing word that perhaps flags some sort of weird edge case.

[LordDragonfang]

My best guess is the Sirens of greek myth, who are often (incorrectly) depicted as sexual temptresses. Bit of a stretch, though.

[Dannymetconan]

Totally agree with the sentiment. It has gotten a lot better in the last 10 years. Very frustrating to have your name blacklisted by that. It does seem most system have a very US focused design.

I still find it funny that even in my home country you can't use a lot of local special characters in names. Also most airlines won't accept it so technically I'm not giving them my true name!