# Things that you didn't know and other people did **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 30, 2016, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270 "2016-09-30T06:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/41 "2016-10-05T17:58:30Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Here’s one: Advent calendars. Never heard of them until middle age. I think I had just become barely aware of them before _Bad Santa_ came out so I was intrigued by the bits in that regarding them. Same here. Around age 40 or so I started hearing about them online but nobody I know has ever mentioned one. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/42 "2016-10-05T18:56:14Z")
About 10 minutes ago, the new featured a story about this weird mammal and how it is being trafficked and endangered. I called my wife to see it. She walks in and say, “Oh, yeah. One of those ‘Armadillo’ like things.” My kid walks in the room, and says, “Oh, a Pangolin”. I had never heard or seen such a thing before. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/43 "2016-10-05T19:58:41Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > About 10 minutes ago, the new featured a story about this weird mammal and how it is being trafficked and endangered. I called my wife to see it. She walks in and say, “Oh, yeah. One of those ‘Armadillo’ like things.” > > My kid walks in the room, and says, “Oh, a Pangolin”. > > I had never heard or seen such a thing before. Kids _know_ shit. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/44 "2016-10-05T21:09:44Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I knew they would legally change their name and adopt their husband’s surname as their own. > > What I didn’t know was that part of that process also involved them changing their MIDDLE name as well to their (now) maiden name. I think what TriPolar was getting at is that he knew it was common practice for women to _informally be referred_ to as Mary MaidenName MarriedName, but not that it was common for women to _legally change_ their middle name to their maiden name. I say this because it describes what I thought as well. Is it actually common for women, upon getting married, not only to legally change their last name to their husband’s last name, but also to legally change their middle name from their birth middle name to their maiden name? ---
**Author:** ![TwiSpark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TwiSpark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwiSpark)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/45 "2016-10-05T21:15:48Z")
The name of this very website. I stumbled across it when looking at political compass stuff and thought “straight dope? what? ‘dim witted heterosexual’? what kind of name is that for a site?” (British English may have had something to do with this) Had to Google to find out what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/46 "2016-10-05T21:35:05Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > We played it all the time in the 80’s. And, come to think of it, there’s nothing about the game that requires a swimming pool. The only things the pool brings to the game are slower moving players, natural boundaries and no (less) obstacles. I never heard of it until I was an adult. The apocryphal story I was told was that a bunch of kids were swimming and one of them suggested they play water polo. None of them know how, so they invented their own version and called it Marco Polo. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/47 "2016-10-05T21:40:22Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I didn’t know that it was common in the south for women to change their middle name to their maiden name after they got married. > > Jane Alison McKinney would get married and change her name to Jane McKinney Roberts. > > It apparently happens all the damn time and I was made to look like an idiot when I had no idea it was a thing. My mother (in New York) did that after she got married. A few years later, she realized that no one else she knew did it, so she went back to using her middle name. After she passed away, it was a bit of a hassle to convince banks and other institutions that “Jane M. Doe” and “Jane K. Doe” were the same person. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/48 "2016-10-05T21:47:37Z")
To this day, I don’t know how to ride a bicycle. The first time I tried, I toppled over and got my ankle stuck between the spokes. It made me leery of them for the next few years, and by the time I got the nerve up to try again, other kids picked on me for still needing training wheels. I put my bike away and never looked back. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/49 "2016-10-06T20:21:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Sir T-Cups View Post > I didn’t know that it was common in the south for women to change their middle name to their maiden name after they got married. > > Jane Alison McKinney would get married and change her name to Jane McKinney Roberts. > > It apparently happens all the damn time and I was made to look like an idiot when I had no idea it was a thing. Hillary Rodham Clinton ring a bell? ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/50 "2016-10-06T21:24:55Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Hillary Rodham Clinton ring a bell? Again, we all experienced her being _referred to_ as Hillary Rodham Clinton, but did she _legally_ change her name to that, or was she just referred to that way on an informal basis? ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/51 "2016-10-06T21:47:17Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Again, we all experienced her being _referred to_ as Hillary Rodham Clinton, but did she _legally_ change her name to that, or was she just referred to that way on an informal basis? Her official name (nowadays) is Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/52 "2016-10-07T03:13:58Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Definitely not! > > Says the Spaniard who still doesn’t know what the heck half the games named in this thread are (I’ll google them later). I just had to google Marco Polo to find out what the hell the game was. So it’s blind mans buff played in a pool with verbal clues and no blindfold. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/53 "2016-10-07T03:20:31Z")
You must not have seen the [Geico ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjHK2Uczq7o). ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/54 "2016-10-07T03:27:34Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > You must not have seen the [Geico ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjHK2Uczq7o). Nope. I assume it’s a US Advert. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/55 "2016-10-08T18:09:52Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I didn’t know that it was common in the south for women to change their middle name to their maiden name after they got married. > > Jane Alison McKinney would get married and change her name to Jane McKinney Roberts. > > It apparently happens all the damn time and I was made to look like an idiot when I had no idea it was a thing. > [@Procrustus](#): > > Not just in the South. My mother, from Maine, did the same thing in 1954. > [@Arcite](#): > > I think what TriPolar was getting at is that he knew it was common practice for women to _informally be referred_ to as Mary MaidenName MarriedName, but not that it was common for women to _legally change_ their middle name to their maiden name. I say this because it describes what I thought as well. Is it actually common for women, upon getting married, not only to legally change their last name to their husband’s last name, but also to legally change their middle name from their birth middle name to their maiden name? Both of my grandmothers used their maiden names as their middle names. One was sorta from the South, in that she was born in the Pacific Northwest, but only after her family had moved here from the South. My other grandmother was born and raised in California. I wonder if things like Facebook might bring the fashion back. Most married women on Facebook now identify themselves with [first name] + [maiden name] + [married name] to make it easier for friends from the past to find them. Let’s see … for me, there are tons of pop culture references from the 1970s and 1980s that I don’t get, despite growing up during those years. My family attended movies very rarely, so I never saw most of the “big” movies from those years. Our family television also broke in 1976 and my parents elected to neither repair nor replace it, and I didn’t get my own TV until I got my own place in the 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/56 "2016-10-08T19:47:43Z")
This’ll date me- the Ray Charles Singers have (had?) nothing to do with the blind piano player Ray Charles. Different Ray Charles. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/57 "2016-10-08T22:53:20Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Again, we all experienced her being _referred to_ as Hillary Rodham Clinton, but did she _legally_ change her name to that, or was she just referred to that way on an informal basis? When she and Bill were starting out in Arkansas, she ticked off a lot of people because she didn’t change her name to Clinton. She kept going by Hillary Rodham until his second election to the governorship. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/58 "2016-10-09T00:03:11Z")
Maybe this would be better suited for GQ, but since it keeps coming up here: does anyone know for a fact whether it’s common for women to _legally change_ their middle name from their birth middle name to their maiden name, rather than just being referred to that way on an informal basis? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/59 "2016-10-09T01:25:35Z")
In most of the US, you can change your name simply by using the new name as long as you aren’t doing so for fraudulent purposes. That doesn’t mean that government agencies or banks etc. have to accept your name without some sort of proof (which would usually be a birth certificate, marriage certificate or court order but can sometimes be proof that you have been using a name for a specified amount of time). But if I have been known as Doreen Maiden Married for the last 25 years, that’s my name, even if my ID simply says Doreen Married. If we’re talking about times past, ID’s didn’t include middle names or initials nearly as often as they do now (and suffixes weren’t part of the name the way people treat them now) so there likely wouldn’t be any documentation to support either Doreen Maiden Married \*or \*Doreen Middle Married. So if by “legally change” , you are referring to having documentation with both the maiden and married names , they probably did not do so in the past, but I would argue that it wasn’t informal. Undocumented perhaps, but not informal. One of the complications in getting an answer to your question is that we know people by the names they use (or accept) in a particular context but we often don’t know what names they have on their official documents. Just some examples from my life (which can make it hard to find people in a corporate email directory) - Anne Smith- who appears as Anne Smithjones in the email directory - Theresa Adams- who appears as Theresa Williams Adams . And is that because she changed her middle name or because it’s a hyphenated last name that got messed up when the email account was created? Can’t really tell - and the first one example could also be a changed middle name or a hyphenated name that got messed up. -Sue Greene- who is in the email directory as HSGreene ( I’ve known her for 15 years and still don’t know her first name.) - My uncle Jimmy whose name was actually Vincent - apparently, Jimmy was a common nickname for Vincent among Italian-Americans but it probably wasn’t on his ID. -Combo first names- Names like Mary Louise or Anne Marie often aren’t a first and middle name , they are a two word first name. Except when they aren’t. - the overwhelming majority of people I know from contexts other than work who assume my last name is the same as my husband/kids’ last name have absolutely no idea what middle initial or name I might have on my ID ---
**Author:** ![mage-girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mage-girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mage-girl)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/60 "2016-10-09T03:50:26Z")
A friend of mine recently informed me that narwhals actually exist. I still think my friend is messing with me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270.md?page=4)