Increase the Standard Name Field Size on a Custom Object in Salesforce

## Limitation

It is not possible to change the length of the standard name field on a custom object.

## Workaround Steps

1. Rename the out of box Name field to Id and set it to Auto Number.
2. Configure a new text field to store the Name (can be more than 80 chars or 255).
3. Go to the Search Layout settings of the custom object and then add the new text field name in the columns displayed for your selected profiles.
4. Train Users to use the SEARCH ALL fields option in the lookup. Default is based on the Id, but the user can change the selection to ALL FIELDS and then type in the text from the custom Name field. And this will bring in the results.

## Additional References

More details on these workarounds in the link below: 
Increase the field length of the Standard Name field

There is also an idea that has been created for this. Make sure to vote for it. 
Increase Name field length from 80 to 255