Meet the woman called L.A. who has spent her life trying to convince people that it’s her real name.
L.A. Cartier, 36, has spent most of her life correcting people on how to say her name — with many thinking it’s a set of initials or spelt ‘Ellay’.
The name was given to her by her mom, 57, who wanted to combine the initials of two surnames on different sides of her family.
Her name was made even more unique by the added full stops — which can be seen on her official birth certificate.
However, shortly after she was born, the law changed to forbid numbers or full stops from being used in names.
She is convinced that she is the only L.A. around and often has to show her driver’s license to people to prove she’s using her real name.
L.A., a social media creator and singer-songwriter from north London, said: “People think I don’t want to give them my real name.
“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 license to prove it.
“People ask how I spell it and think it’s Ellay I say ‘no, it’s just L dot A dot’.
“It’s just having to explain every time, and the conversation that has to happen before they understand.
“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.
“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.”
L.A. has recently run into more problems with her name when she tried to order a copy of her birth certificate — with the General Register Office (GRO) refusing to change her name unless she changes it.
When she received the copy, her name had been spelt ‘La’ — despite her original saying L.A. on it.
She says the General Register Office (GRO) told her that ‘La’ is correct and that if she wants a copy of her birth certificate with L.A. she’ll need to change her name.
However, she is unable to do this via deed poll as it won’t accept the use of the full stops in her name.
She said: “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.”
L.A. experienced similar problems when registering her son’s name after he was born.
She said: “When I wrote my name in the mothers 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 the problems her name has thrown up, the uniqueness of it means she has yet to find anyone with the same name.
She said: “I love it.
“Every time someone hears my name, they think I’m a famous person or I’m an RNB singer, and as well as social media, that’s what I do — so they believe it’s a stage name!
“The closest I’ve found is someone called KC, but I don’t believe there’s any dots in it.
“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.
“Even after I was born, my mom started hearing about another baby called L.A., and my mom thought it was impossible, and it transpired that it was just a shortened version for a longer name.”
