I once had the following conversation with a woman I have known, although not especially closely, for many years.
–Michael, what’s your middle name?
–I don’t have one.
–Come on, everyone has a middle name.
–Not me.
–I promise not to tell anyone.
–Nope, no middle name.
–Please tell me.
…
I don’t think she ever believed me. Neither parent had a middle name either. Although my younger brother and sister did.
My son’s sister-in-law was named Jean. Her father had wanted to call her Megan. Her mother objected that people would call her Megan the pagan (absurd). She disliked the name Jean and, when she turned 18 she changed it legally to Megan. It took some getting used to (we called her Megan, fka Jean) but now 15 years later we all call her Megan.
Incidentally, I like my name. It seems to be one that never goes out of style, but it is never overly common.
My ex-husband would have had the same conversation with most anyone. I was one of very few people who knew he had a middle name, and fewer who knew what it was (Stuart). He hates it with a passion and refuses even to put it on legal documents.
I go by my middle name. It is a giant pain the ass in this country of first name middle initial last name. Most forms don’t even have space to write out your middle name. This has only gotten worse in the ubiquitous computer age. My company has systems for you to put in the name you want to be addressed as, but there are still several places where any employee can see my full name.
My first name is almost always a girls name. I’ve never actually met a male in person with the name. I don’t like my first name but don’t want to go through a legal name change either. The initial is on my business card but I never tell people what it is.
Any telemarketer that calls with my first name gets abuse.
My mom wanted to name me Toby which, to me, is either a dog’s or guy’s name. Thank God Dad put his foot down. That said, my father has never, ever called me by my given name. He always calls me by my nickname, even when he was furious with me. My nickname is Scooter (full moniker: Scooter Bug) so I’ve never been tempted to go by it in the professional world (although it worked for Scooter Libby - for a while). My given name still has gender issues but, on the whole, is quite serviceable.
My middle name is my dad’s name. My first name is a last name (of one of my dad’s friends) and my last name is a first name.
It’s really only affected me in that, unlike other people at my school, I was never called by my last name, and I have an aversion to diminutive nicknames (other than T, of course.)
I’ve yet to see her work, but I’m sure she is very hot!
My mom’s name was Elaine Harriet (Surname) but my grandparents had a ‘boarder’ when she was a baby who came downstairs every morning calling “Elainie! Elainie!” so my grandmother changed it to Harriet Elaine. Poor mom.
In third grade, there were three other Lisas in the class, one also Lisa Ann, and I had the joy of being called “LA” the entire year. I’m still recovering
Heh, I did get middle-named Marguerite after Elderly Female Relation. My first name is relentlessly dated (to me), but at least I have the charming lie my parents told me, which is that they picked it because it means “gift of the Elves.”
