Credit Reporting Agency Agrees To Confidential Settlement In Suit Alleging It Refused To Acknowledge "God" As Brooklyn Consumer's Given Name; Victim: Outfit's Failure To Add Me To Its Database Crippled My Buying Power - One Rep Actually Suggested I Change My First Name!

In Brooklyn, New York, the New York Post reports:

• So it turns out God does exist — and he’s living in Brooklyn.
  
  A Br​ighton Beach man named God Gazarov has settled ​his federal lawsuit against ​credit-reporting giant Equifax ​after the company finally agreed to enter his unusual moniker into its database.
  
  As reported exclusively by ​T​he Post last year, the 27-year-old Russian native was falsely branded as having no credit history because Equifax refused to recognize his ​given first name.
  
  The bizarre snafu made it impossible for the jewelry-store owner to secure basic loans, court papers say. While other agencies accepted his name, the Equifax block crippled his buying power.
  
  After more than a year of haggling, Gazarov secured a confidential payout from Equifax [] and emerged from the negotiations at the Brooklyn federal courthouse with a wide smile. Now boasting a ​healthy 820 credit score, Gazarov said he was relieved to have settled the case and plans to put his refurbished financial profile to use with a new BMW. “It’s been five years of this,” he said. “I’m glad that it’s over.”
  
  In his suit, Gazarov claimed he had been ignored after repeatedly insisting to Equifax representatives that his first name was legitimate.
  
  Gazarov said he was stunned by the company’s refusals to acknowledge his name and noted that it is relatively common in his native land.(1) “This was my grandfather’s name,” he said. “I was named after him. I’m sort of like God Jr.”
  
  The graduate of Brooklyn College said an Equifax customer-service representative even suggested he change his first name.
  
  “The whole point of the system is to report fairly and accurately,” his attorney, James Fishman, said after the case concluded. Fishman said that Equifax quickly added Gazarov’s name to its credit-reporting database after he took legal action last year but that the financial settlement took time to hammer out. Equifax attorneys refused to comment.

Source: Man named God settles lawsuit with credit agency.

See also, New York Daily News: God (Gazarov) proves his existence in Brooklyn court after Equifax threatens to deny him credit over divine name.

----------------------------------

(1) Probably as common as the name "Jesus" (pronounced hāso͞os') in Spanish-speaking countries, I imagine.