Entering Your Name Exactly as Your ID Shows It
Every verification flow says the same thing: it has to match your document. Which sounds unambiguous, until you notice your passport carries your name twice, written to two different sets of rules — and that which half counts as the surname was never yours to decide.
Independent guide · Not affiliated with any platform · Not investment advice
Plenty of people search some version of “does the surname go first”. The question assumes there is a universal answer. There is not — and the reason is written into the standard that governs passports.
ICAO's Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3 (Eighth Edition, 2021) splits the holder's name into a primary identifier and a secondary identifier, and then says:
The issuing State or organization shall establish which part of the name is the primary identifier. This may be the family name, the maiden name or the married name, the main name, the surname, and in some cases, the entire name where the holder's name cannot be divided into two parts.
Read the last clause again. For some holders the entire name is the primary identifier and the secondary identifier is empty. Anyone in that position meets a form demanding a first name and gets stuck — not because they filled it in wrongly, but because the form assumed a structure the standard deliberately does not assume.
What the surname and given names boxes ask
Map that onto the form in front of you. Last name / Family name / Surname is asking for the primary identifier. First name / Given names is asking for the secondary identifier. Neither box is asking what people call you, or what order your culture puts names in. Both are asking what is printed in those fields on the document you are about to upload.
The specification describes the secondary identifier as whatever remains: “the forenames, familiar names, given names, initials, or any other secondary names”. It also settles a question people get wrong in the other direction — prefixes and suffixes such as titles, professional and academic qualifications, honours, awards and hereditary status should not appear unless the issuing State considers them legally part of the name, in which case they belong in the secondary identifier field. So Dr., Sir, Jr. and III go in only if your document actually prints them there. Do not add them yourself.
Replace “does the surname go first” with “which segment does this document register as the primary identifier”. That version has exactly one answer, and it is printed on the page in front of you.
Your document carries two versions of your name
On a passport data page your name appears twice:
- The visual inspection zone (VIZ) — the human-readable fields, which may carry national characters alongside a Latin transliteration.
- The machine readable zone (MRZ) — the two lines of capitals and angle brackets along the bottom of the page.
The MRZ has to be printed in upper-case OCR-B without diacritical marks and fit a fixed number of positions. The standard draws the consequence itself: names in the MRZ are represented differently from those in the VIZ.
| Aspect | Visual zone | Machine readable zone |
|---|---|---|
| Case | Upper case recommended; mixed case for prefixes such as von, Mc, de la | Upper case throughout |
| Diacritics | National characters allowed; non-Latin scripts need a transliteration | No diacritical marks |
| Punctuation | Printed as it stands | Not allowed — substituted or dropped by rule |
| Splitting the name | A single comma, if one combined field is used | Primary identifier, then two fillers <<, then secondary |
| Overlong names | Printed as it stands | Truncated by rule when positions run out |
So “must match your document” is ambiguous: match which zone. In practice: type what the visual zone shows. The MRZ earns its keep in one specific way — when you genuinely cannot tell which segment is the surname, everything before the first << is the primary identifier, and within the secondary identifier the components are separated by a single <.
It also explains a moment of alarm people report: a service echoes your name back as a punctuation-free block of capitals. That is the MRZ being read. Nothing has been corrupted.
Apostrophes, hyphens, commas, suffixes
The standard gives rules and worked examples for each. They are worth knowing precisely, because each one gets mistaken for a bug:
| Character | Rule | Example (VIZ to MRZ) |
|---|---|---|
| Apostrophe | Omitted, components joined, no filler inserted | D'ARTAGNAN to DARTAGNAN |
| Hyphen | Becomes a single filler; the halves count as separate components | MARIE-ELISE to MARIE<ELISE |
| Comma splitting the name | Omitted, replaced by two fillers | ERIKSSON, ANNA MARIA to ERIKSSON<<ANNA<MARIA |
| Other punctuation | Omitted, no filler inserted | — |
| Digits | Not permitted in MRZ name fields | Hereditary numbering appears in the VIZ as Roman numerals |
The practical takeaway is narrow and easy: you follow the visual zone, punctuation included. You never strip punctuation yourself to look more like the MRZ.
When the name does not fit
Long names have a rule of their own. The specification says the number of character positions in the name field is limited, that it differs between document types, and that when the primary and secondary identifiers exceed the available positions the name shall be truncated using the procedure in the document-specific parts — and that in all other cases the name is not truncated.
How tight is it in practice? In the passport-format examples in the standard's own appendix, the MRZ name field runs to 39 positions, and one of the worked examples is footnoted as having been truncated to fit. So a long name legitimately appears cut short in the MRZ while the visual zone carries it in full — two different renderings of one lawful name.
If a verification form imposes its own character limit, keep the order and the spelling of the visual zone and stop where the field stops. Do not invent an abbreviation, and do not drop a component to make room, because that produces a mismatch nobody can explain later.
One name, two scripts, a new married name
Three situations come up constantly and each has an answer in the same document.
A single name. Covered above: the standard allows the entire name to be the primary identifier where it cannot be split. Forms that will not submit without a given name are imposing an assumption the standard avoids. Do not manufacture a first name or cut your name in half; enter what the document shows and take it to support if the form refuses.
Non-Latin scripts. National characters may be used in the visual zone, and where they are not Latin-based a transcription or transliteration into Latin characters must be provided. The transliteration is not a matter of taste — the standard carries tables for the commonly used Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic families, and its Arabic examples show how far the two zones can drift apart: a visual zone reading Hari Al-Schamma corresponds to an MRZ of HARY<ALXSHMAE. The same appendix notes that for Arabic names it is for the issuing authority to determine which component is the primary identifier, and shows two different, equally valid MRZ renderings of one name depending on that choice. If your Latin spelling looks unlike anything you would have written yourself, that is the system working as designed.
Marriage and name changes. The standard lists the maiden name and the married name among the things a State may designate as the primary identifier — which is to say the choice is the issuing authority's, and both are ordinary. What matters for a verification form is only which of them is printed on the document you are submitting. If you hold documents from different periods with different names, decide which one you are uploading before you type anything.
Get it right first: it is usually not editable
This field deserves an extra two minutes, not because it is hard but because it tends to be one-way. Binance's verification page, for instance, says “Please make sure that all the information entered is consistent with your ID documents” and “You won't be able to change it once confirmed”. Most platforms work similarly: after confirmation, corrections go through a separate update-your-identity flow, and that flow usually carries a cost of its own — see the section on declaring an update in what to do when your ID has expired.
So the order is: document open in front of you, then type, then confirm. Three checks, under a minute:
- Read the visual zone and copy each field letter by letter. Not from memory.
- Glance at the MRZ and find the first
<<to confirm you have not swapped the two boxes. - Confirm you have added nothing and removed nothing — no invented middle name, no dropped punctuation, no suffix the document does not carry.
After that the name field is rarely the reason for a refusal. For the rest of the paperwork see KYC documents and photo tips; for what is accepted where, the document finder by country; and if you have already been rejected and need to work out at which step, rejected verification: fixing details and appealing. The whole flow end to end is in the KYC walkthrough. If the step you are stuck on is the camera rather than the form, see what a liveness check is actually testing.
The name structure, the primary and secondary identifiers, the difference between the two zones, the punctuation rules and the truncation rule all come from ICAO Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3 (Eighth Edition, 2021), sections 3.4 and 4.6 and Appendix B. We read the published text on 30 August 2026 and checked each quoted example against it, including counting the 39 positions in the appendix examples. The platform lines are quoted from the English Binance help centre page opened the same day, which displayed a last-updated date of 5 June 2026. (The Chinese edition of the same page carries its own date; each language version of this site quotes the help page in its own language.)
We did not log into any account and have not submitted any verification, so this page describes no platform's screens and does not interpret any organisation's internal review rules on its behalf. Issuing authorities differ in how they apply the standard, and verification forms differ in field names and validation. What is offered here is a checkable set of rules and a way to self-check against them; the requirement that binds you is whatever your issuing authority and the platform page show at the time.
Questions people ask
Which part of my name goes in the surname box?
Whatever your document registers as the primary identifier. ICAO's machine readable travel document specification says the name is generally represented in two parts, a primary and a secondary identifier, and that the issuing State or organization decides which part is the primary one. It may be the family name, the maiden name or the married name, the main name, the surname, and in some cases the entire name where it cannot be divided into two parts. So the useful question is not whether the surname goes first, it is which segment your particular document registers as primary.
My passport shows my name twice and the two do not match. Which one do I copy?
Copy the visual zone, the human-readable fields you look at. The other version is the machine readable zone, the two lines of capitals and angle brackets along the bottom. The specification states that names in the MRZ are represented differently from those in the visual zone: upper case only, no diacritical marks, no punctuation, and truncated if the name does not fit. The MRZ is still useful for one thing. Everything before the first double filler is the primary identifier, so it settles any doubt about which segment is your surname.
What happens to apostrophes and hyphens in my name?
Type them as printed in the visual zone. They change only in the machine readable zone, where punctuation is not allowed. An apostrophe is omitted and the components are joined with no filler, so D'ARTAGNAN becomes DARTAGNAN. A hyphen becomes a single filler character, so MARIE-ELISE becomes MARIE, filler, ELISE. A comma separating the primary and secondary identifiers is dropped in favour of two fillers. If a service shows your name back without its punctuation, it read the MRZ. That is not you having typed it wrong.
My name is longer than the field allows. What then?
The specification says the number of character positions in the MRZ name field is limited, differs by document type, and that the name is truncated using the procedure in the document-specific parts when it does not fit. In the passport-format examples in the standard's appendix the field runs to 39 positions, and one worked example is explicitly footnoted as truncated. So a long name may legitimately appear cut short in the MRZ while the visual zone shows it in full. Enter the visual zone version and, if a form limits the characters, keep the order and spelling rather than inventing your own abbreviation.
I only have one name, with no separate given name. What do I put?
This is a recognised case, not an error. The specification allows the entire name to be the primary identifier where the holder's name cannot be divided into two parts, which leaves the secondary identifier empty. Forms that insist on a given name are making an assumption the standard does not make. Do not invent a given name or split your name in half to satisfy a box. Enter it as the document has it, and if the form refuses to submit, that is a question for the platform's support, with the document as your evidence.
Name structure and MRZ rules (read 30 August 2026): the primary and secondary identifiers, the issuing State deciding which is which, the treatment of prefixes and suffixes, the statement that MRZ names are represented differently from VIZ names, the double-filler separator, the truncation rule, the apostrophe, hyphen, comma, other-punctuation and digit rules with their worked examples, the Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic transliteration tables and the Arabic primary-identifier example are all from ICAO Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3: Specifications Common to all MRTDs (Eighth Edition, 2021), sections 3.4 and 4.6 and Appendix B.
Platform requirement: “Please make sure that all the information entered is consistent with your ID documents” and “You won't be able to change it once confirmed” are from How to Complete Identity Verification for a Personal Account? in the Binance help centre, which showed a last-updated date of 5 June 2026 when we opened it on 30 August 2026.
The three-step self-check, and the advice to decide which document you are submitting before you start typing, are this site's own reading of the material above and do not represent the position of any issuing authority or platform.