[brown]

If we're talking about legal purposes, then names are a pretty poor primary key. In such situations, SSN or other UUID would be superior.

For any recreational/social purpose, what's the point of requiring legal name? How many "John Smith"s are there in the world?

[skreech]

The SSN is technically a NUID, not an UUID. So legal names are more important in international context (an Indian SSN doesn't mean anything in the US, for example).

But yeah, assigning GUIDs to everyone born in the world, like as "a93sz0sz" would allow uniqueness for thousands of years.

[brazzy]

Yet somehow, I doubt many people would appreciate that kind of uniqueness...

[malandrew]

Actually legal names are a problem even within the US. I recently had problems with getting a California driver's license because my second middle name was abbreviated on my green card, but spelled out fully on my North Carolina driver's license, which I was transferring to California.