Hery Rajaonarimampianina and the global leaders with the longest names
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Version 0 of 1. Former finance minister Hery Rajaonarimampianina has won the run-off presidential election in Madagascar. Though his main rival has claimed that the vote was rigged, nobody would deny that Rajaonarimampianina is the hands down winner when it comes to nomenclature. His family name alone racks up an impressive 19 characters and (we think) nine syllables. His full name – Hery Martial Rakotoarimanana Rajaonarimampianina – totals 44 characters. One would assume that repeating three years in primary education just to master the spelling of his name would hold Rajaonarimampianina back in life (we have no evidence that happened) but on the basis of our story, it appears that a long name can be good for a career in politics. We've mapped 195 leaders' names below. (If you want to know the shortest name, maybe head to Singapore …) On average heads of state rack up an impressive 14.4 characters – the top 20 are listed below. Excluding the exceptional Rajaonarimampianina, heads of government tend to have slightly longer names than heads of state. You can get the numbers for every leader of a UN-recognised country here. Take a look and tell us what you think. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |