>
> > What exactly is the point of a middle name, though? The first name is handy for just addressing someone quickly, like "Hey, John". The last name is useful when you have lots of names. If you have three Johns in the room and you say "Would John please come here?", they don't know which John. But the middle name is pretty useless. Also, middle names tend to be wierd. "John Doe" sounds OK. "John Mekdelaby Doe" sounds odd.
> >
> > - Atha"Just using my full online name for this post"leon
>
> The middle name is so your parents/spouse can scold you properly, of course.
>
> Sosi"Andrea Taylor Smith, come here THIS MINUTE!"qui

My middle name is my connection to reality. With an outlandish name like Hierosolyma, I need a nice, normal middle name like Patricia to ground me. My middle name was almost Polyhymnia, and THAT would have been a disaster! Hierosolyma Polyhymnia duMinne? I would sound like some princess in an RPG! Eek!

Hiri"Hierosolyma is hard enough to spell without the Polyhymnia"duMinne