[viraptor]

On the other hand, have you ever tried to do something even slightly unusual with paper documentation? It's not just convenient to have it digitised, it's close to necessary unless you want to spend months of your life chasing (for example) the right way to translate and certify the validity of an entry of your change of name in an old printed volume of The Gazette in the UK. Because they had a "YOLO, just let the solicitor know you changed your name, or not, who cares" system.

[username332211]

I'm not sure this has as much to do with paper documentation as with the fact the UK has no unique identifier for it's citizens. In that situation, name changes should be a pain.

Just as much as it's a pain to deal with any other database without primary keys.

[ljf]

Indeed - people sometimes think that the National Insurance number is our identifier - but the forget you can use many names with that, and people get by just fine.

My mother is an actress and holds bank accounts (and gets paid) in her full name, her acting name and in her maiden name - I don't think the NI knows about these names any more than they know that she's paying tax to that NI number. Employers don't care as long as you provide an NI - there is not check to make sure it is the 'right name'.

They write to her at her 'full name' but she's able to live (entirely legally) as her other names too.