I agree with the aurhor about his remark that a middle name is not always pleasant.

Although to many it can be a good identification in the Media,
anthony michael hall, michael j fox( although his middle name originally started with an A) David Ogdan Styers. Many times it works

But for many it doesn't. .

For my case, I was given my middle name after my father, and didn't like it for a number of years ( personal issues and family situations withstanding)

Yet as I grew up into "adulthood" I started signing my checks and documents that way .. first name middle initial last name.. and it worked well.. it was a way of telling myself that I was an adult somehow

And the ironic part with still makes me smile is that so seldom can people guess what my middle initial stands for even when I tell them what it is

Remember that names have power, power that we give to the name but power none the less. In a real sense, I am for the concept that at 18 , there be some kind of naming ceremony as part an entry into adult hood. The paperwork wouldn't be that hard and in doing so. It might even be as a right of passage into adulthood and an acknowledgement that you are a named person . Named by yourself and acknowledged by all as such

Your middle name is Earlgrayhot? :>

I think I've gone you one better. My first name is Richard and my middle initial is K. I adopted the "Ric" form of "Rick" because I already had a K in my name.
Though I sign my name with Richard, don't use the middle inital and then the last name.

Doesn't this all boil down to personal preference. I chose to be called "Ric" at the end of high school and now, all these years later, no one calls me the other Richard form.

Hmmm.

My middle name starts with an "O". And frankly it's a real pain in the rear end. Every time I pronounce my name over the telephone I get asked if I'm Irish.

anyone curious about who leaked the cia prison story? valerie 'i'm a cia agent, cody' / 'cia soccer mom' plame - but don't tell anyone except the editors at goodhouse keeping - who has been outed from her covert agent position - sweeping up and ordering office supplies - but there is no fall-out to the fact that our terrorist prisons are on the front page of every freedom hating publication here and in the eu.

Admittedly not knowing the full details, I'm nevertheless curious why Libby didn't simply choose to go by his middle name. In fact, my mother and one of my father's brothers both did so from childhood, as do both of my wife's first-cousins.

My dad, whose given name is Marion and whose middle name is Arlo, apparently adopted the nickname "Mac" while in the Army during WW2, and I can't say I blame him. But as far as I know he's the only person on either side of my own family to take a nickname since one of my great-grandfathers on my mother's side was dubbed "Peanut" for paying off a lost bet by pushing a peanut down a train platform with his nose.

I'm trying to imagine my dad telling his Army buddies to call him "Scooter." I think he would have preferred Marion.

I chose to be called "Ric" at the end of high school and now, all these years later, no one calls me the other Richard form.

Except that, unless you write it out for people, nobody knows you chose to drop the "k", because both are pronounced the same.

I hate it when I forget to close a tag.

And, we still don't care...Libby who?

My middle name starts with an "O". And frankly it's a real pain in the rear end. Every time I pronounce my name over the telephone I get asked if I'm Irish.

ed, I've the same problem with the middle initial O. So I often see my name printed in junk mail as O'Biel. It would be funny if Biel weren't such a German name and I had some Irish in my ancestry, but without those two things, it just sounds stupid. I guess "stupid is as stupid does".

Then again, those that find out the whole middle name, Otto, usually jump to obvious joke: Otto Biel as in automobile. It just gets funnier everytime I hear it. <sigh>

Speaking of Scooters, check this out:
http://www.jieyu-design.com/port/skid1.html

At home, I was always called by my middle name--Michael, or Mike--and preferred it. Then I started school. Those nuns didn't want to hear about how I preferred to be called Michael. WHACK! with the ruler, until I got used to David (my first name). After years of that, I gave up trying, though I still sign my name first, middle initial, last.

Off topic, but when I was a kid, we used to have a local dairy called "Otto's". Which is why we never got our milk from cows.

Can you update the link? It's not pointing to the Libby story, and I can't find it on the site.