Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren fog Obam here with another classic episode
Speaker 1: for you today. Today's question is what's in a name?
Speaker 1: A middle name? To be precise, Hey, brain Stuff, Luren
Speaker 1: fog Obam here. Few things perplexed expectant parents more than
Speaker 1: picking just the right name for their child. And the
Speaker 1: middle name is no exception. It must have both gravitas
Speaker 1: and joy to vieve and set the tone for a
Speaker 1: lifetime of repetition on official forms. But what's in a
Speaker 1: middle name? Anyway? In ancient Rome, people often had five names.
Speaker 1: The first three were like today's modern surname, middle name,
Speaker 1: and last name. The last two names usually revealed the
Speaker 1: person's place or clan of origin. The modern tradition of
Speaker 1: inserting a middle name or two into a child's moniker
Speaker 1: most likely began in the Middle Ages, when parents gave
Speaker 1: babies a personalized first name and a saints name for
Speaker 1: middle name, followed by a surname. By the mid eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: this European habit had entered the United States, brought along
Speaker 1: by immigrants, and began to take on new significance. Middle
Speaker 1: Names inspired by saints were sometimes replaced by non religious
Speaker 1: middle names, such as a maternal maiden name. By the
Speaker 1: time the Civil War began in eighteen sixty one, middle
Speaker 1: names were given purely at the parents discretion. Any name
Speaker 1: of their liking was fair game, and were often aspirational
Speaker 1: in nature, with two or three middle names given. After all,
Speaker 1: a hypothetical name of Peter Aurelius Oliver Smith carries a
Speaker 1: little bit more weight than plain old Pete Smith, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: The idea of a middle name took hold in the
Speaker 1: United States, and by the start of World War Two
Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, official in sprint forms became the first
Speaker 1: government documents to request applicants middle names. Middle names were
Speaker 1: so much the norm that when computers became routinely used
Speaker 1: for US citizenship documents, they were programmed to recognize three names,
Speaker 1: not two or four, only three. If a middle name
Speaker 1: wasn't entered, the program would automatically insert n m I,
Speaker 1: which was a military abbreviation for no middle initial. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was originally produced by Tristan McNeil and is based
Speaker 1: on the article why do we have middle Names? On
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot Com written by Laurie L. D.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with how stuff Works dot Com and is produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clay. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
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