Jakarta. Parents should consider placing at least two words when giving names to their children to avoid administrative issues when they grow up, a Home Affairs Ministry official said on Monday.

For the older generation of Indonesians, especially those of Javanese ethnicity, it’s very common for them to go by a single name. The most notable examples are the country’s first two presidents Sukarno and Soeharto.

But Zudan Arif Fakrulloh, the ministry’s director-general for the Citizenship and Civil Registration Office (Dukcapil), said a single name could cause serious troubles when it comes to legal documents.

“For example, when a child registers for a school or applies for a passport before making an overseas trip, the form requires at least two words of the applicant’s name. And someone’s name must be consistent in every other public service,” Zudan said in Jakarta.

He said the government has recently adopted the Law on the Guidelines for Name Registration on Citizenship Documents.

“Name registration in the citizenship document must contain at least two words for readability and clarity. Our society must take early actions for the future of their children,” Zudan said.

The guidelines also advise that a person’s name should comprise a maximum of 60 characters including spaces.

Parents who register just a single name for their child will be strongly encouraged to add at least another word, “but if they insist, there is nothing we can do,” he said.