Hello, Saloners! Did you know it's National Middle Name Day? Did you know there was such a thing as Middle Name Day? Well, now you do. In honor of Middle Name Day, I thought I'd list some interesting author middle names (most of which I found on TV Tropes, which has a mind-boggingly extensive list).
- CS Lewis' initials stood for Clive Staples. He went by Jack.
- Lewis' buddy JRR Tolkien's full name was John Ronald Reuel, pronounced Raoul. Surprisingly hot for Tolkien. Of course, he went by Ron.
- The famous poet Rainer Maria Rilke's full name was Rene Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke.
- Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, legally changed his name. Originally it was Erich Paul Remark.
- Arthur Conan-Doyle's middle name was Ignatius.
Book characters can have unusual middle names, too:
- Lord Peter Wimsey's middle name is Death. This is actually a legitimate surname, although most people who have it usually spell it like the Belgian town of de'Ath.
- The Wizard of Oz's original name was, "Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, Diggs being the last name because he [Oz's father] could think of no more to go before it... When I grew up I just called myself O. Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled 'pinhead,' which was a reflection on my intelligence."
- Bertie Wooster's middle name is Wilberforce, which he finds very embarrassing.
- JK Rowling doesn't have a middle name, but she does give her characters middle names. A reader once asked her if Nymphadora Tonks hated her first name so much, why didn't she go by her middle name instead of Tonks. Rowling replied her middle name was Vulpecula, which Tonks hated even more than Nymphadora.
For more odd middle names:
Do you have a middle name? Mine is Kersten (pronounced care-stin, because it's German). My mom told me she got it from a calendar of saints' feast days, although I've been told by several people there is no saint named Kersten. Also, my mom is Lutheran, so where did she find a saints' calendar? In any case, I like it.
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