Names are pretty powerful things. At school finding out the first name of your teacher provided a tantalizing glimpse of their humanity. The dreaded Mr Tunmore somehow seemed less like an ogre after we discovered he was christened Maurice. I am convinced there is money in researching the full names of all the staff of a school, publishing them in a booklet, then selling them outside the gates at break time.
Similarly middle names have always been valuable commodities. My friend at primary school was called Thomas Maxwell Dawnhorse Clark, and there was a boy a couple of years below me who’s middle names were Darcy Primrose. I’m sure they still bear the emotional scarring to this day.
Amy doesn’t have a middle name. This was not particularly deliberate, we just couldn’t think of one before the deadline for registering her birth. We were going to go down the same road with Evan, but at the last moment we decided that it would be appropriate if he took Kerry’s Maiden name: Malcolm. I’m just glad my mother didn’t do that with me; I wouldn’t have liked to be called Daniel Cox Hughes.
Related posts:
hello…
a british by the name of Matthew Sutherland wrote an article about names in the Philippines, it has the same title as your post, although the ‘rose’ is ‘rhose’… you can find a copy here in my blog…
http://charleslemark.wordpress.com/2006/06/03/a-rhose-by-any-other-name/
The strength of middle names lies in their power to strike terrible fear into the hearts of children. Our son only hears his if he’s in real trouble.
I have been known to call Amy \”Amy Amy Hughes\” in lieu of a middle name when she\’s in trouble. There is something about having an additional name for those moments.
A friend at work\’s son has 2 middle names and a double barreled surname. 31 letters in total, she said filling out forms can take a while…
my middle name is bon.
oh! my main reason for dropping by was to thank you for the book! (i was distracted by the shiney object on the home page.) greg made the delivery this week. it looks quite entertaining! i hope to wrap my brain around it over the holidays. thanks for spreading the wit stateside!
No problem bon bon, I hope you enjoy it. I think I did, but I kind of spent most of the time waiting for something to happen. Once you realize it won’t you enjoy it a lot more.
The author’s Number 1 ladies detective agency series is a bit better we feel, but we kept those:)