Article content

A Hawaiian woman has accused officials of ignoring the state’s heritage by asking her to shorten her name on official documents.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Dear Janice Lokelani Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele: Your name is way too long for your ID Back to video

Janice Lokelani Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele was issued with a driver’s licence that missed the final letter of her last name and did not include her first and middle names at all.

To some people in the world, your name is everything

She told the Honolulu television station KHON2 that truncating her name was “disrespectful to the Hawaiian people, adding: “The county has never accommodated my name on my driver’s licence.”

She once carried a state ID card that gave her full name, but even that was shortened when she recently renewed it. She said it meant she could not travel and that she fell under suspicion during a police traffic stop when the officer looked at her driving licence.

“He [the police officer] looked at it and he goes, ‘Well, where is your first name?’ And I said, ‘Don’t blame me. This is your department.'”

Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele said officials had asked her to use her maiden name or shorten her surname to make things easier.

But she wanted to retain the full name in tribute to her late husband.

In an email she sent several years ago, which was published by the website Gawker, she said: “To some people in the world, your name is everything. If I say my name to an elder Hawaiian, they know everything about my husband’s family going back many generations, just from the name. When the name is sliced up, changed or altered it distorts the intention and meaning that the name represents. Unfortunately, many people have been shamed into hiding their real names because they don’t fit in with the dominant culture’s lack of respect for the name.”

After being pressured by KHON2, the local department of transportation said it would try to accommodate the full name.A spokeswoman said: “We have been made aware of that issue and I know right now they are working to extend that limit to, I believe, 40 characters so that issue can be resolved.”

(Watch this KHON2 video to hear how Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele’s name is pronounced)