Laurence won a High Court battle to have the world's longest name

If you want to address Laurence Watkins by his official government name, it might take you about 20 minutes.

That's because the Sydney man, originally from New Zealand, holds a unique world record.

After a lengthy High Court battle decades ago, the 60-year-old has the world's longest personal name.

READ MORE: Trump says Israel and Hamas agree to 'first phase' of Gaza peace deal

Watkins' full name is 2253 words long and it was recognised again by the Guinness World Records after a small change to his 1992 title, revising it from the world's longest christian name to world's longest personal name.

"I always wanted to be a little bit famous," he told 9news.com.au.

"I read the 1989 Guinness World Records from cover-to-cover and that was really the only record I could have a chance of beating."

At the time in New Zealand, there was no law stopping Watkins from changing his legal name to something absurd.

Do you have a story? Contact reporter April Glover at april.glover@nine.com.au

Now, official names usually can't be longer than 70 characters and can't resemble or be an official title or rank.

That wasn't the case when Watkins first petitioned to have his name changed.

"I chose Lord, Duke, King and Saint as some of my names, I sort of rubbed it in their faces, and one of the two laws they changed after I won was that you couldn't have a title as your name in New Zealand," Watkins said.

"But my favourite name is AZ2000."

His world record pursuit didn't come without a court date, though.

It was accepted in the district court but when Watkins went to change his driver's license, the clerk didn't believe him.

Watkins was challenged by a registrar to take it to the High Court after he didn't accept his lengthy moniker.

"He called me frivolous, and he said the only way I would force him to go ahead and register my name is if I took him to the High Court," Watkins recalled.

He did exactly that and walked away with the world's longest name.

Watkins' old passport in New Zealand had an extra six pages attached to it to accommodate for his 2000+ extra names.

And his revised birth certificate has another six pages added to the back of it too.

Guinness World Records originally awarded him for 2310 names but was later updated this week to 2253 following a change to the record guidelines.

READ MORE: An unexpected email ruined Perth couple's $3000 trip to Hawaii

Even Watkins can't remember all the names and it took him hours to count them out.

To give you a taste: it's in alphabetical order and his name starts as Laurence Alon Aloys Aloysius Alphege Alun Alured Alwyn Alysander Ambie Ambrose.

And it goes on.

"I'm hoping it will be in next year's [Guinness] book, unless somebody in the world beats me in the meantime," Watkins said.

"Even if I lose the world record, nobody in New Zealand can beat my record, because of the law change."

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.