British woman has name so unique people don’t believe it’s real and constantly question ‘if it’s fake’
A woman has told how she regularly has to whip out her driving licence to 'prove' her name as people don't believe it's real.
The Brit, 36, believes that she is the only person on the planet with her unique moniker, which she says others often presume is either 'a mistake' or an alias.
Thankfully, she's got her original birth certificate to verify her two-letter title - which is a good job, considering the General Register Office (GRO) now want her to legally change it.
Although the social media content creator and singer/songwriter has had more than enough of explaining herself over the years, she still 'loves' her name and its uniqueness.
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"Every time someone hears my name, they think I'm a famous person or I'm an R'n'B singer," she explained.
"And as well as social media, that's what I do - so they believe it's a stage name!"
To be fair to those people, the moniker 'L.A. Cartier' does sound like a pseudonym a music star would use in 2025.
However, it's something her mother thought up back in 1989 as she wanted to combine the surnames of both sides of her family when naming her daughter.
L.A. has spent most of her life correcting people's pronunciation of her quirky name, as most presume that it's a pair of initials or said like 'Ellay'.
The musician, from north London, explained that she has to put the most emphasis on the full stops when reciting her name to new people.
"People think I don't want to give them my real name," she said. "Or that it's a fake name or that I'm trying to withhold my real name - so sometimes I have to show my driver's licence to prove it.
"People ask how I spell it and think it's 'Ellay'. I say 'No, it's just L dot A dot'.
Sharing her frustrations, L.A. added: "It's just having to explain every time, and the conversation that has to happen before they understand."
This punctuation between the letters is printed on her birth certificate - but shortly after she was born, there was a change in UK law about names.
It meant that numbers and punctuation could no longer be used in names, as Deed Poll explains that Brits are banned from including 'punctuation marks that do not have a phonetic significance'.
As well as constantly explaining herself, L.A. admitted she often runs into issues when trying to submit her name into online systems.
"Whenever I write my name online I have to type it as an L and a small a as it wont go into the system," the 36-year-old continued. "Anything I sign up for online, I don't put the dots in as none of the systems will accept it.
"People call me and say is this 'La' and I correct them and they still don't know what it is. Some call me Cartier and think L.A. is a mistake."
She tried to order a copy of her birth certificate from the GRO recently, only for it to arrive with her name misprinted.
L.A. explained: "I wanted to get a copy of my initial birth certificate, as I have the real one and I'd like a copy. When they gave me the copy, they put it as 'La', and I went back and told them this is not how it's spelt.
"They said it was correct, and I told them it can't be - they entered it incorrectly and their system wouldn't accept the dots. They need to go by my original birth certificate.
"They're telling me I need to go to deed poll to change it to L.A., but I can't change it, as the law states you're no longer allowed full stops now. So it's just been left at that for now."
She experienced a similar deed poll predicament when registering her son's name, despite her mother having no issue with naming her L.A. more than three decades ago.
L.A. continued: "When I wrote my name in the mother section they told me I couldn't use that name.
"I explained that was my real name, and when he went to go and check, he came back and said I was correct and that the law changed a few years after I was born to forbid symbols."
Despite all the stress, L.A. still loves her name - and reckons she is the only person in the world with one that's so unique.
"The closest I've found is someone called KC, but I don't believe there's any dots in it," she added. "Since posting about it on TikTok, I've had people come forward saying they know people called L.A..
"But it's never spelt exactly the same way. One girl messaged me and said her name was L.A., but it was L'ae."
Olivia Burke