Middle names

[PAH]

The only use I've ever found for my middle name is that is makes a nice (and rather apt considering my general outlook on life) three letter word out of my initials. No prizes for guessing .

Though a friend at college had the initials 'WAR' which I thought was ace when he entered it into the arcade video games we used to play back in the good old days.

It's rare I even think of my middle name and never normally divulge it anywhere on official forms etc. Not that it's embarrassing, just don't see the point in wasting the extra time writing/typing it out.

[xoggoth]

It would be simpler in the internet age if names were replaced by 256bit encrypted ones generated by a brain implant and changed every 20 minutes. None of this bothering with cards and pin numbers and passwords, you just stick your finger in the card machine and read out the Captcha code on your retina.

[EternalOptimist]

It would be simpler in the internet age if names were replaced by 256bit encrypted ones generated by a brain implant and changed every 20 minutes. None of this bothering with cards and pin numbers and passwords, you just stick your finger in the card machine and read out the Captcha code on your retina.

It wouldnt work.
Can you imagine it, a moonlit summers evening, on the canal bank. trying hard to smooth talk her keks off

'oh 26273548456795758742627354845679575874679575679575 84567957587426273548456795758746795756795752627354 84567957587467984567957587467957567957584567957587 42627354845679575874679575679575262735484567957587 46'

snog snog,

'that was me mums name that was'

[Doggy Styles]

A middle name makes your initials more unique. For initialling things. Such as at work or declaring undying love on trees and walls.

At work over the years I've found several people sharing my first and last initials, but few share all three. I can't remember any.

[TimberWolf]

A middle name makes your initials more unique. For initialling things. Such as at work or declaring undying love on trees and walls.

At work over the years I've found several people sharing my first and last initials, but few share all three. I can't remember any.

1 in 26^3 chance of a duplicate (1 / 17,576), and in a group of 157 people there would be an even chance of it containing one duplicate, by my calculation. Assuming a uniform distribution of initials, with 3 initials each. So a big office floor might contain one. Chances are though as you say you'd not meet one.

[Sysman]

I don't have a middle name either.

I was told off in primary school by an ignorant teacher for not having one. "Don't be stupid, everyone has a middle name.". Figure that out.

My first primary skool teacher demonstrated her ignorance by insisting my surname was spelled differently.

Which provided me with valuable lesson - Teech is not always right.

[Sysman]

I use my middle name and have all of my life. I've never been called by my first name and it's a standard name too. My folks just called me by my middle name and that was that. I've met quite a few others like this too.

It can cause confusion. Especially at gigs where they want to check your background etc. You introduce yourself as YZ and when I've produced my passport etc as XYZ they sometimes scratch their heads. I've had email set up in my first name at these type of gigs and have to get it changed as no one knows the mysterious dude XZ ..... just the weirdo YZ.

I've got some course certificates like that.

More serious was when Swiss immigration put the wrong first name into their computer for a Dutch chap, and then wouldn't correct it. As a result all his insurance policies and other contracts were invalid and he had to get them changed.

[Sysman]

1 in 26^3 chance of a duplicate (1 / 17,576), and in a group of 157 people there would be an even chance of it containing one duplicate, by my calculation. Assuming a uniform distribution of initials, with 3 initials each. So a big office floor might contain one. Chances are though as you say you'd not meet one.

False assumption. There's also the influence of what names are in vogue at the time of birth.

[gingerjedi]

A middle name makes your initials more unique. For initialling things. Such as at work or declaring undying love on trees and walls.

At work over the years I've found several people sharing my first and last initials, but few share all three. I can't remember any.

My initials are ME, people think I'm taking the piss.

[mudskipper]

My initials are ME, people think I'm taking the piss.

Hello Mark / Mike / Martin