Poll #1226040
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do you use your middle name (if you have one)?

If not, why not?

I wonder about this because today someone asked my middle name. It was a perfectly valid request, because the question came from a colleague who wanted to e-mail me something: Our company's e-mail format is firstname.x.lastname@company.org, and so knowing that middle initial is key if there are a number of folks with the same first and last name. My name is not unusual, but it's at least unusual enough that because I gave no middle name when I was hired, my company e-mail address is simply firstname.lastname@company.org.

In any case I just told her that I didn't use my middle initial or my middle name, and she asked why, and I, well... had no good answer. But the truth is that I largely do not use my middle name any more, even as an initial. I leave that part blank on applications and the like. And it didn't really occur to me to wonder why, in fact, I do so.

It's not that my middle name is objectionable. It's "Timothy," if anybody is wondering. Nothing wrong with that. Tim, Timothy, perfectly good names (though to be fair I don't think I know anybody named "Tim" who would prefer that everybody use the full "Timothy.") Still, though, no problem with the actual name. I don't dislike it, I'm perfectly happy with it... I just, for whatever reason, have stopped using it, and feel a very low grade irritation when I see my middle initial on things like credit reports and the like, which have that information from back in the day when I did fill out that blank. Why should I feel that way? No reason, yet I do.

In fact there might even be a bit of a reason to use at least my initial, since if you run my first and last name together quickly, it can sound like there is a minor vulgarity in there. The pause for a "T" would eliminate that.

I wonder if I should, well, wonder at my own behavior in this? It is pondersome or possibly worth reflecting on.

But enough about me. How do you feel about your own middle name?