Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-07-25
lilies Devoted to Literature, Local and General News.
Middle Names Are a Recent Fashion
Few Men in Country's Early History Had Them..-
A Sort of Hero Worship :: =: ::

In a little company of young men
a few nights ago the question Of
middle names came up, and inquiry
showed that five out of SIX of those
present had middle names. One said
he once dropped his, but took 1t up
again at the request of his father.
Another said he never told anybody
what his middle name was, and three
admitted that they regarded theirs
as a nuisance. Then they wondered
when middle names originated and
what good they were anyhow.
Every person must have remarked
the current fad of writing out the
middle name in full This fashion
sprang up only few years ago, and
has been much affected by some peo-
pie. Until it became the vogue, a
person with middle name would
have been laughed at for writing 1t
out in full, but fashion justifies
everything Some people, desirous
to be differentiated from the common
herd even divide their names in the
middle-as G. Washington Sykes,
w. Shakespeare Boggs or T. Jefferson
Jones. This shows that the owner
knows how to wear a middle name
without being tripped up by 1t, as a
militia officer sometimes is by his
sword.
Middle Names More Common Now.
But the question recurs when did
middle names become so popular and
what good are they? There is reason
to believe they are far more common
now than they were few generations
ago. In list published in The News
few days ago of pensioners of the
Revolutionary War who died in In
diana, out of SO, there were only
twelve with a middle name or initial.
Any one e--'pany that served in the
War of the Rebellion would show
more double names than this, and
any page in the city directory would
show two or three times as many.
Benjamin Harrison had no middle
name, but the company which he
raised and commanded as captain be-
fore he became colonel contained
fifty-five officers and privates with
middle names--nearly five times as
many as there were among the $40
Revolutionary pensioners who once
lived in Indiana.
History seems to show that middle
names were not common during the
1,.t, t,nn
time after. Few of the prominent
soldiers or statesmen of that period
had double names. OF generals there
were George Washington, Anthony
Wayne. Henry Knox, Arthur st.
Clair, Francis Marion, John Sullivan,
Nathaniel Greene. Artemus Ward, Is
rael Putnam, Rufus Putnam-each
having but one name. The same was
true of nearly all the commissioned
officers in the Revolutionary army.
Presidents without Middle Names.
Of the thirteen presidents of the
Continental Congress, between 1875
and 17SS, not one had a middle
name.
OF the fifty-tive signers of the Dec
laration of Independence only three
had middle names. The bold sigma
ture of John Hancock would not be
as effective If he had had a middle
initial, and that of benjamin Frank
lin appears more dignified without
one.
Among the $50 delegates to the
Continental Congress, from 1774 to
1888, only twenty-five had middle
names.
In the first Congress under the con-
stitution, held in 1889, out of fifty
nine Representatives only five had
middle names. One of these, men,
Der from South Carolina, bore the
singular name of John Baptist Ashe.
Another elected first Speaker of the
House, was Frederick Augustus Con-
rad Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania. A
third was John Peter Gabriel Muh-
lanberg, also from Pennsylvania.
Both of these men, by the way. were
preachers, both quit the pulpit to
enter the Revolutionary army, and
both achieved distinction as soldiers
and statesmen. Their father, also a
clergyman, was of German birth, and
they got their middle names from
the prevailing custom in Germany.
Few Among Early Statesmen.
OF our eight Presidents from 1889
to 1910, only one had middle name,
and of the fifty-three persons who
served as Cabinet officers under the
five administrations of Washington,