Question about "name" datatype

[Greg Stark <gsstark(at)mit(dot)edu>]

In c.h There is the following comment:

/*
 * We want NameData to have length NAMEDATALEN and int alignment,
 * because that's how the data type 'name' is defined in pg_type.
 * Use a union to make sure the compiler agrees.  Note that NAMEDATALEN
 * must be a multiple of sizeof(int), else sizeof(NameData) will probably
 * not come out equal to NAMEDATALEN.
 */


And indeed in pg_type the typalign column says "i" for this data type. My
question is just, why? What would be the problem with an alignment of 1 for
"name"?

-- 
greg