Re: CHAT: Middle Initials

Dan Jones wrote:

>I've noticed something. Loads of American names have an initial in the
>middle, like Raymond E Feist, Kathlyn S Starbuck and even our own David E
>Bell. Whereas over here we don't do this. Generally we just ignore our
>middle names, and consequently a random letter in the middle of the name
>looks weird to me. To me Daniel B Jones looks slightly pretentious. So, a
>question for you over on the other side of the pond, why do you do it?>
Winston S. Churchill (well, he was half American), Wm. Butler Yeats,
J.R.R.Tolkien (multiple middle names are fairly rare here!-- There was a
college classmate, British, Alastair X.Y.Z. Something, who was known as
Alastair5).

Perhaps, in a large population, to distinguish one Dan Jones from the
others... Semi-legal requirements, such as bank and credit-card signatures.
The power of the bureaucracy.  It does seem to be more 20th Cent. than 19th
or earlier. Custom?  I've noted that Russians, in written work, tend to use
just their initials-- V.I.Lenin, N.S.Khrushchev, Yu. Kh. Sirk etc.

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