a reader claims that U.S. Presidents alternate between normal names (John, Richard, James) and unusual names Dwight, Lyndon, Gerald). The recent run of Ronald, George and William seems to undermine this.
However, an alternate theory seems to be doing better – namely, that virtually all Presidents since WWI have had strange middle names:
Thomas WOODROW Wilson
Warren GAMALIEL Harding
Calvin (no midle name) Coolidge
Herbert CLARK Hoover
Franklin DELANO Roosevelt
Harry S Truman
Dwight DAVID Eisenhower – the exception that proves the rule
John FITZGERALD Kennedy
Lyndon BAYNES Johnson
Richard MILHOUSE Nixon
Gerald RUDOLPH Ford
James EARL Carter
Ronald WILSON Reagan
George HERBERT WALKER Bush
William JEFFERSON Clinton
My admittedly limited reference sources do not give middle names for most earlier Presidents – though, when they do, they tend to be odd ones, like “Knox” or “Simpson.”
Granted, the theory is not perfect. Wilson was born Thomas Woodrow, but changed his name before entering public life. One might argue that Clark was not that unusual for its time, nor Earl that unusual for its place. Nevertheless, I find it compelling.
So, what are the middle names of Gore, Bradley, Bush, and McCain?
Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.
John Sidney McCain
George Walker Bush
William Warren Bradley
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Jr.
Alan Lee Keyes
Orrin Grant Hatch
Gary Lee Bauer
My apologies to supporters of other candidates. I stopped out of laziness, rather than politics.
Strange middle names by our standards perhaps, but not really by the standards of the pool from which Presidents have been largely drawn. From about 1800 to 1950 it was very common among middle class and upper class Anglo-Saxon Americans to give as middle names the maiden surnames of the child’s mother, grandmother or earlier female ancestor. I know for a fact that Delano, Milhouse and Walker fall into that category, I suspect most of the rest do also. The practice was emulated by families from other backgrounds- for example, the German/English Hoovers and maybe Eisenhowers (originally Ike was David Dwight, but he later flipped the names) and even some Irish Catholics- thus John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
As a matter of fact the pattern was so common that sometimes it was assumed to have been followed even when it wasn't actually used. When young Ulysses Grant applied to his Congressman for an appointment to West Point the Representative didn't know he had actually been christened Hiram Ulysses Grant and assumed he was Ulysses Simpson Grant (he knew Grant's mother and her maiden name), so he made the appointment under that name. Grant, rather than go through the bureaucratic hassle of getting it corrected, accepted it and became U.S. Grant.
And if anybody is wondering, no the pattern had nothing to do with the naming of Grant's colleague, William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman was not descended from a daughter of the great Shawnee leader. :) His father was a non-conformist and admirer of the chief, so he simply named his son Tecumseh Sherman. When young Tecumseh was about 10 his father remarried, and the new stepmom was horrified by the "heathenish" name and insisted that the "christian" William be stuck in front of it.
Oops, forgot to add the reason for Ford’s middle name- he was born Rudolph King, Jr.
When his mom remarried she changed his name to that of her new husband, Gerald Ford, but kept his original name as the new middle name for her son.
*nebuli: Oops, forgot to add the reason for Ford’s middle name- he was born Rudolph King, Jr.
When his mom remarried she changed his name to that of her new husband, Gerald Ford, but kept his original name as the new middle name for her son.
Wrong. He was Leslie King, Jr. at birth.
Diceman: Our current president was born William Jefferson Blythe. When his mother re-married, he became William Jefferson Clinton.
The President didn’t start using the name Clinton until he was in high school, some 8 years after his mother remarried.
