Okay, it was in the WSJ and you say it was well sourced.
This is again only my own experience, but I see many articles citing bogus sources, biased sources, or outright made up garbage masquerading as sources. I have no doubt you read it, or that there were references to “experts”.
Maybe they really did find people with wacky Nazi nicknames in the Philippines (I kind of doubt it since knowledge of European history is limited).
Regardless, the idea there are insufficient surnames is patently absurd as they have all the hispanic surnames plus a wealth of native surnames. I’ve seen many directories in the Philippines, there is no significantly greater name conflict issue there than in most countries. Again, contrast it with Korea, where there are basically only 4 surnames.
Second, the idea nicknames somehow aid in identification in the Philippines is also absurd as nicknames don’t appear on birth certificates or the National Bureau of Investigation clearances, the two most common forms of government ID.
The nicknames are actually more likely to cause name conflicts than given names because there a few popular ones and they don’t match official documentation.
I know, you are just repeating what you read in the WSJ, and please, I am not attacking you or questioning your report of what you read. I believe you and believe you reported it accurately.
I am saying that, as recounted, the article or whoever the article is quoting are not living in Realville. If I could read the article myself, perhaps I could parse it or understand the context, but at least two of the contentions are just wrong.
It is an old article and we’d have to pay now to find it in the WSJ archives.
Still, I do recall that it cited cases of bad credit, and problems with the criminal justice system due to the confusion of names. And it did name the “victims” and their stories. That’s all I remember from it.