For years people have been claiming in internet forums that California has a rule that if the ID contains more name information than the document, that is acceptable, but the reverse is unacceptable. The people making this claim have been challenged, and asked to cite a law or binding rule that sets forth this requirement. I have never seen anyone cite such a law or binding rule.
What would I consider a law or binding rule? The California Notary Handbook lists the relevant laws in the second half of the handbook. I don’t see any such requirement in the laws listed. (The first half of the handbook does not seem to have this requirement either).
Another place to look for binding rules would be the California Code of Regulations, Title 2, Division 7, Chapter 8. These are rules made by the Secretary of State for Notaries Public, made through the official executive branch rule-making process. These rules do not seem to have the requirement described by scataroper.