Auditor identities are increasingly visible to capital-market participants, yet relatively little is known about whether publicly observable identity cues shape audit reporting beyond conventional auditor attributes. We examine whether the structural complexity of signing auditors’ names is associated with the likelihood of issuing modified audit opinions in China, where audit reports disclose the identities of signing auditors and thereby increase individual accountability. Using a large sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2023. We find a robust negative association between auditor name complexity and the issuance of modified audit opinions, which suggests that engagements signed by auditors with more complex names are less likely to receive modified opinions. Our study contributes to the auditing literature by introducing a novel, non-semantic, externally visible auditor attribute and by extending research on individual auditor effects in auditor disclosure settings. More generally, it advances behavioural accounting research by demonstrating that subtle identity conflicts, which are unrelated to technical skills, can consistently influence high-stakes professional decisions.