I think there is a world market Windows was preceded by DOS, which limited file names to 8 characters without spaces or special characters, followed by a period (full stop) and up to three more characters. DOS allowed you to type with lower case letters, but it "thought" in upper case (capital letters).
Windows did away with this limitation. Depending on the version and other issues, you can use up to (between) 250 and 255 characters, with an extension (sometimes) of up to four characters (but it is not recommended to use more than three characters in the extension).
Some backup programs work like DOS. They don't allow long file names. If you do have a long file name, then the backup program will concatenate (shorten) it into the standard DOS format of eight characters plus a three character extension. Thus, they may remove the benefit of that long file name. No, not all backup programs work that way.
This raises an important question.
Why create long file names if the computer may shorten it anyhow? Worse - the computer will shorten them the way it wants to. That can create serious limitations and shortcomings. After all, when the computer takes your long file name and shortens it, then it becomes only six (not eight) characters, following by a tilde (a little wiggly character) and a number. In other words, the concatenation actually punishes you by removing 25% of your available file name. Worse - you are now in a position that you are letting the computer decide on the file name.
That's not all. If you name a file using a non-English alphabet such as Hebrew, then the meaning of the file name may be difficult for the computer system to understand. When there is a problem withe the computer, and it has to be repaired, the result will comes out as gibberish.
True, you can find conversion tables that may help you understand the equivalent English letter for the Hebrew. That table is not arranged phonetically, and its sounds are different in Hebrew and in English. It will not be comprehensible to most people. The conversion is likely to be expensive because somebody has to do this long work of conversion when they see it if Windows is not able to be loaded up.
The situation is even worse. You can't always convert these names these long file names or the file names which are written in other languages. It's not always possible to input the characters, because they don't appear on the keyboard (and the Hebrew keyboard will not help here). Even those characters that do appear do not always represent those on the screen. That may mean that you have made a situation in which it's very difficult indeed to change the file name to anything usable. It is definitely not recommended.
That is why it is always recommended to use English transcription rather than Hebrew or non-English letters.
You can test whether your file names are readable. Restart your computer, press F8, and you will be able to go into a DOS emulation screen. Check a directory that has long file names. If your names are not readable in DOS, then you are taking a risk.
for maybe five computers.
-Thomas Watson (1874-1956)
Chairman of IBM, 1943
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