In Germany you need names, mostly the last name, because in apartment buildings the apartments are ususally not numbered. There are oodles of mailboxes with one mailbox for each apartment which has the last names of all residents on it.
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But that’s only true for apartement buildings, not single family homes. But it’s common to write the last name.
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That’s correct.
Yes they do. They check them before releasing them into the pool of selectable addresses.
When I moved to Singapore and finally went back to active with my new address, a few days later I got an email from postcrossing saying my address didn’t match UPU standards. (The address I put in ended with “xxx Singapore”, where xxx is the postcode. But I had to add “Republic of Singapore” at the end. Looks redundant to me, but I do what the UPU says…).
Only after I corrected the address, it was given out.
As for the name, I never had my full name on postcrossing. Whilst being a postcrosser, I never lived anywhere where the name is displayed outside, all that is needed is the apartment number. It would get to me even without a name at all, and I used to get mail with lots of different names of previous tenants of the apartment I rented.
I even opened a thread about this in the Italian section of the forum because in Italy it’s unheard of, to have mail without your name on it and to my knowledge no-one uses apartment numbers. So all Italians were asking me about it when I gave my address. When I lived there, the name was needed, I didn’t know my apartment number when I was younger and even when I learnt it I never used it.
If it is a single house, I guess there is no doubt about where to deliver the mail.
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I mailed a card to someone and the only name was, “blue” it got there just fine
One time my parents in law (they live in a single house) got a letter from our nephew:
To grandma and grandpa
Street, number
Postal code town
They had to argue with the postman for handing out the letter. Just because it was addressed to “grandma and grandpa” and not to their names 
and even though he knew them for years…
And I remember a postcrossing member who had a similar problem. The sender used her name but instead of the surname her postcrossing name.
Also she had to argue before getting the postcard. The simple reason, in both cases: if the names are not matching with the names on the mailbox or with your identity card, Deutsche Post is not allowed to hand out the mail even it is clear that the sender made a mistake or a joke.
On the other hand there’s my postwoman who puts ALL postcards my mailbox even those for my neighbours or other streets. 🤦
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When I lived in Germany I had to remind my (Dutch) relatives to please put my whole name on the card otherwise it would be returned.
Also, twice my debitcard was blocked because the Deutsche Post did not deliver the bank’s mail but returned it to the bank…
In the Netherlands they put the mail in the mailbox that goes with the address, regardless of what name is on it.
At first I wondered about the different ways addresses are formatted. Now I just write the address the way it was given to me.
(Sometimes though, when people give their address in capitals, I write it in lower case since my handwriting is almost like capitals only smaller. 
)
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Same here… I receive mail for the people who lived here before us and for the people that lived there even before the others 
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Oh yes, that happens to me, too! If the mail is unregistered, the postman just puts it in the mailbox (in my apartment building there are mailboxes for all apartments in the ground floor). For registered mail, it’s different, you do need a name and if you have to go pick it up at the post office (because you weren’t at home when the postman came), they will check it if it matches your ID. It had to match your ID and address earlier but they don’t put the address on ID cards anymore, so I guess just the name is checked now.
I use a P.O. Box for my private mail, so it’s again a bit different. There the name is needed and it needs to match the name I signed up with for the p.o. box. You can tell the post to put mail addressed to other people in your p.o. box, but you have to let them know their names. If someone would send something addressed to my p.o. box but put a different name (not mine), the item would be returned to the sender.
But for “normal mail” just the adress is needed and mail will be delivered, even if it is addressed to Mickey Mouse or Superman 
Wow, I didn’t know that could be an issue. In Finland it definitely is not as I have always sent cards to my grandmother just using her nickname “Järvimummu” (she lives in Järvikylä = lake village, so that’s why we call her with that name) and all the cards have been delivered to her.
Actually one of the coolest stories I know with postcards is the card my cousin sent her in early 2000’s from Germany. It only had her full name, text “the white house next to the road after the big pine” no postal code, the name of the town she lives and Finland. And the card made it. 
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Have you heard/read about the letter with a map instead of an address that got delivered in Iceland?
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Quite often we get mail here in the U.K. addressed to the householder, no name. Not always junk mail either.
My aunt often does this… she can never remember the house number… and often forgets other details, too… like the zip code etc. So far everything made it!
I only use my first name, as my last name is long and hyphenated. I don’t think our postal workers even look at the name, only the street address and apartment #. I could be wrong, but I’ve gotten my neighbor’s mail and they’ve gotten mine before, as our boxes sit next to each other.
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Cool! 
a block of flats may need the flat number as well as a building number.
perhaps not everyone wants to give out their last name.
Happy birthday! 
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