# "Danger" is my middle name: Origin

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-is-my-middle-name-origin/403667>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 11, 2007, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-is-my-middle-name-origin/403667 "2007-05-11T11:46:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-is-my-middle-name-origin/403667/1 "2007-05-11T11:46:30Z")

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This is such a cliche, but does anyone know where it originated?

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-is-my-middle-name-origin/403667/2 "2007-05-11T12:02:14Z")

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I got as far back as 1966, in an episode of [The Monkees](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0650696/quotes)

> [@](#):
>
> Micky: [speaking with a masculine voice] Well, don’t worry, my middle name is ‘Danger’.  
> Micky: [the Wolfman lets out a growl from behind the door] Aaah! Of course, my last name is ‘Chicken’.

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**Author:** ![boygenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@boygenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boygenius)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-is-my-middle-name-origin/403667/3 "2007-05-11T17:16:41Z")

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There’s really two questions:

First, when did people start saying “X is my middle name” as a colorful way of making a statement about X?

Second, when did people start using the word “danger” in that expression?

I took a quick look at the google news archives and found

this reference from 1909:

> [@](#):
>
> It’s dis way, I’ma booster Sure, dat’s me middle name

Probably if you poke around you can find older ones.

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**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-is-my-middle-name-origin/403667/4 "2007-05-11T20:09:42Z")

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The first person to say that was a man named Ernest Danger Gordon.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-is-my-middle-name-origin/403667/5 "2007-05-11T22:06:59Z")

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[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin]  
I got as far back as 1966, in an episode of [The Monkees](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0650696/quotes)  
[/QUOTE]  
Cool. I asked the same question a couple of years ago, and the earliest we found was from _The Trumpet of the Swan_ by E. B. White (1970).