# Danger? Danger is my middle name! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133 "2009-07-06T22:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dangerismymiddlename.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@dangerismymiddlename.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangerismymiddlename.com)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/1 "2009-07-06T22:12:56Z")
What is the origin of the saying “Danger? Danger is my middle name!” The kids these days say “Austin Powers”, but as a 40 year-old that got the he-entered-his-name-wrong-and-waited-decades-to-tell-the-punchline joke, I don’t buy it. The correct answer is important to me, because, well, Danger is my (legal) middle name! The best list of movie quotes that I can find is here, but most of these are far more recent than I believe this saying to-be: [http://www.imdb.com/Find?select=Quotes&for=danger%20is%20my%20middle%20name](http://www.imdb.com/Find?select=Quotes&for=danger%20is%20my%20middle%20name) Thank you, Paul ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/2 "2009-07-06T22:35:02Z")
This seems to have been [asked here before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=420395), with the earliest use being 1966 and the earliest use of the exact phrase being E.B. White’s 1970 _The Trumpet of the Swan_. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/3 "2009-07-06T22:46:51Z")
And if you want to take it really far back, the cliché might have been inspired by a line from the Renaissance poet Spenser. From the _Faerie Queene_, book IV, verse XVII: His [a hideous giant’s] name was Daunger dreaded ouer all, Who day and night did watch and duely ward, From fearefull cowards, entrance to forstall, And faint-heart-fooles, whom shew of perill hard Could terrifie from Fortunes faire adward: For oftentimes faint hearts at first espiall Of his grim face, were from approaching scard; Vnworthy they of grace, whom one deniall Excludes from fairest hope, withouten further triall. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/4 "2009-07-06T23:25:17Z")
I have no doubt that this phrase in various forms has been used for the past 75 years. I can find a newspaper story from 1943, about the men who served on a destroyer in WWII and the names of the ships. > [@](#): > > Each named after an outstanding American naval hereo, but their middle name is _Danger_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/5 "2009-07-07T03:22:24Z")
“No anchovies? You’ve got the wrong man. I spell my name Danger!” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/6 "2009-07-07T12:31:35Z")
“That’s just a two-bit ring from a crackerback jox.” ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/7 "2009-07-07T12:40:21Z")
“I sat at my desk, reading my name on the office door: Regnad Kcin” ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/8 "2009-07-07T13:30:14Z")
“Comfort? Comfort is my middle name!” Louis Comfort Tiffany ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/9 "2009-07-07T15:32:46Z")
It seems to me that “danger is my middle name” is just a variation on a general statement “X is my middle name,” where X is some noun used to emphasize an aspect of your personality or experience or attitude. A cursory glance of Google Books turns up the following early examples: [“Transportation is my middle name”](http://books.google.com/books?id=Iv4aAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA117) from 1915 in “Upkeep” by John N wheeler in _Pearson’s Magazine_. [“Porpoise is my middle name”](http://books.google.com/books?id=n1AXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA172) from 1909 in _The Submarine Boys’ Trial Trip_ by Victor G. Durham. [“Deserving is my middle name”](http://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=%22is+my+middle+name%22&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1800&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1910&as_brr=0&sa=N&start=30) from an 1897 magazine (but only a snippet view, so this may be misleading). (Also, from 1954, a play with the exact phrase [“danger is my middle name”](http://books.google.com/books?id=NYveyxZqwn4C&pg=RA2-PA25-IA2) in it.) ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/10 "2009-07-07T16:35:55Z")
Melanie Haber? Audrey Farber? Susan Underhill? How about Betty Jo Bialoski? (aka Nancy) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/11 "2009-07-07T19:43:30Z")
Exactly to **Zut**. Danger is my middle name is not a specific line as such, it’s one of many “[attribute] is my middle name” lines. The joke “Danger is my middle name” is indeed from Austin Powers in that it was a line from that movie where Austin was suggesting that Danger really is his middle name. I.e., the Austin Powers joke is based on the very old cliche. So it depends on how you say it. If you say “Danger’s my _middle_ name baby, yeah”, then you’re taking it from Austin Powers, if you’re just saying “danger’s my middle name” in the context of you being a risk taker then it is much much older. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/12 "2009-07-07T20:41:05Z")
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:11, topic:502133”] Exactly to **Zut**. Danger is my middle name is not a specific line as such, it’s one of many “[attribute] is my middle name” lines. [/QUOTE] In all seriousness, is this at all related to the practice of naming cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church? It seems very odd (to me) that when someone becomes a cardinal, this title is not placed prior to one’s name, but rather between one’s given name and family name. For example, why is he called [John Cardinal O’Connor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cardinal_O%27Connor) instead of Cardinal John O’Connor, or [Francis Cardinal Spellman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Cardinal_Spellman) instead of Cardinal Francis Spellman? Does it have anything to do with this “My middle name is \_\_” stuff? ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-danger-is-my-middle-name/502133/13 "2009-07-07T20:59:06Z")
I’m reminded of a quote from “Friends” when Chandler says “Handle is my middle name… actually, it’s the middle part of my first name.” For some reason that line always made me laugh.