Famous middle initials

Bukka White, AKA Booker T. Washington White

Lysander Spooner didn’t need a middle initial.

P J Hoff was a witty Chicago weatherman starting back in the mid 50s on WBBM-TV.

L. Frank Baum

Scottish TV presenter Donny B. MacLeod had no middle name, but was one of three Donny MacLeods in his class at school. (The teacher called them Donny A, Donny B and Donny C).

G. K. Chesterton and Maynard G. Krebs

And, to think of this a DIFFERENT way, there are names that make you wonder who the person is when you hear the name without the full middle name, and only the initial:

Barrack H. Obama

Why popular with presidents? They usually recite their full name in their oath of office.

It might be because the upper crust in Ye olden days had middle names that were matronyms to signify the joining of two powerful families. It might have been a mark of distinction between a parent or grandparent with a different middle name but the same first and last name. The initial might confer relative status or distinction as does Jr., II, III.

Wikipedia has an entry on the history of middle names.

The practice seems much more common among authors, probably for attribution of intellectual property.

T.S. Elliott

J.E.B. Stuart

J.K. Rowling

A.A. Milne

W.C. Fields

Roger O. Thornhill or David O. Selznick – the O stands for nothing.

This also reminds me of the movie Conspiracy Theory where all the famous assassins went by three names.

“John Wilkes Booth, James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald… why do these red-necks always have three names?” — Struck the association from Sondheim’s musical ‘Assassins’… perhaps a sense of self-importance from having several names that lends itself to presidents and murderers.

I have a problem in the US when asked for last name.

In Spain we value equally the middle name (usually inherited from your father) and the last name (from your mother). So for instance my name would have been, lets say; “Jose Ruiz Soto”.

However in the US I am forced to choose one so I have the option of Jose Ruiz-Soto or choose Jose R Soto (dropping the R or Ruiz would be disregarding my dad). But them when authorities see that my hypothetical father is called Juan Ruiz… they say I am lying for saying Soto, so I have to reverse the order; Jose S. Ruiz…. I doubt Hispanic people will decide to drop one of their parents names either. For non hispanic people, the middle initial makes sense to me; claiming uniquness (while keeping their parent´s choice secret)

Isn’t the obvious answer is that most of these people needed to distinguish themselves from others with similar names?

Actors need to have unique names for the Screen Actors Guild. If someone else already is registered with that name, then they have to modify their name. That’s why Michael Fox became Michael J. Fox, Larry Fishburne became Laurence Fishburne, and why Michael Douglas changed his name to Michael Keaton.

Authors are ssimilar.

The patrician clans may also have a need. How many John Rockefellers or Franklin Roosevelts were there at one time? Since they came from famous or at least noteworthy families, people used their initials to distinguish individuals from others in the clan who might share their name (and who all might be initially noteworthy in high society). Otherwise, they’d spend too much correcting the other person who they really talked about. Since that is how the media would report them, that’s how they’re called in popular culture.

Similarly this might also be a result of family naming habits which may give all sons the same first name, but distinguish them by their middle name. Or because the family continues to use the same first names in honor of certain relatives (because of so many “Johns” in my family, my cousins are known by several variants which can include their middle names). Obviously you then need to either use the fist name and middle initial, first initial and middle name, or some other combination (2 initials, 2 names, nickname, etc.). In that case, since you’re already known by that growing up, it is carried over even when you move out on your own.

In some cases, it’s done to hide a name that is obviously of foreign origin and may either hinder acceptance or complicate things because Americans won’t pronounce it right (I assume this is the case with M. Night Shyamalan and various Jews or other ethnics earlier in US history).

Of course, eventually it becomes an affectation as others adopt the usage for themselves when there is no reason to do so.

I have two middle names (and thus two middle initials): David Gordon Dahlgren Hecht. Like some others in this enumeration, I come from a naming tradition where family names are recycled (David Hackett Fischer discusses this in his excellent Albion’s Seed): my mother’s maiden name was Anne Huntly Gordon Dahlgren, Gordon being her mother’s maiden name and Dahlgen being hers. My father’s first name, like mine, was David: so my name is composed of equal parts of my parents’ names.

Having two middle names or initials is…interesting. Most forms–especially online ones–are designed to restrict you to a single letter for your middle initial. Accordingly, I’ve received correspondence and other things addressed to David G Hecht, David D Hecht, and David G D’hecht.

The only time I was really happy with the situation was during the administration of Bush Senior (technically incorrect, since–as with me and my father–George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush have different middle names). Having spent my life hearing people ask, “You have two middle names?!?” I got four glorious years of retorting, “Yes…just like the President!”