what's your middle name?

[SR71]

Hairy rhymes with berry and fairy and ferry, but not with Barry. I've heard Irish pronounce Barry something like Bahry, almost rhyming with tarry (as in a tarry substance, not as in tarry like to stay where you are messing about), which makes the a sound shorter (?) than the US pronunciation. The Bar part of Barry part in US is a shade shorter than bear. I would say that Barry rhymes with tarry, but we hardly ever use the word. It's a fine distinction, it seems to have something to do with the height of the tongue at the back of the roof of the mouth.

[godfry n. glad]

That fairy is scary.

[ravenscape]

My family has deep roots in the deep south. On both sides of my family it's more common that we are called by our middle name (or a derived nickname) than by our first name.

A few years before I was even conceived, my mother decided to name me after a little girl who fell down a well. it was some sort of gripping 24/7 hour radio news thing, trying to rescue her, and my mom for whatever reason fell in love with the little girl's name. I don't even know if the kid was rescued and survived. My mom can't remember.

Anyway, she gave me a fancy highfaluting multi-syllable middle name that could be nick-shortened into the well-girl's name. then she picked an unusual spelling for it.

I have been the bane of computers since punchcards.

I go by the well-girl name, even in professional and computer-assisted settings, and I have retained the idiosyncratic spelling too.

And I can't tell you what it is unless I kill you.

My DH's family has the same middle name thing going, though none of them were named after children who fell down wells or were lost in coal mines, or carried out to sea in rip tides or any other romantic stuff.

but, my SIL and I share the same name anyway. Her parent's gave her the short name as her first name as well as a more common spelling. She's the only person in her family who goes by her first name. We used to live in the same house and attend the same university. Phone calls from friends and fellow students used to be a riot.

and to bring the story full circle, both of my kids go by their middle names, just as we intended. Death to Skynet! One of them was even carried out to sea by a rip tide! He was rescued by a nice lifeguard. I wish I knew his name.

[Ymir's blood]

Kathy Fiscus (1949 - died)
Alfredo Rampi (1981 - died)
'Baby' Jessica McClure (1987 - rescued)

[Demimonde]

Timmy O'Toole (1992-????)

[ceptimus]

We ought to break out that sound recorder thing we used in a thread once, then we could compare the pronunciation and rhyming of different accents.

Our resident bards could write us an interesting passage to read out, containing the words: Barry, ferry, starry, Harry, hairy, Mary, bow (both kinds), fairy - and some of the other words we've mentioned here. Whoever does it should make a new thread so as not to further derail this middle name one.

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by Watser?

My 3d name is Maria

So is mine.

So your name is Gertrud Cornelis Maria Watser?

[Watser?]

[Miisa]

I have four given names, which is like a jackpot for those of us who live in a country where namedays are celebrated.

[ShottleBop]

Middle name is uninteresting. I've been told that my mother was going to name me "Larry," but the nuns at the hospital talked her out of it, saying that it wouldn't do to give me a nickname as a legal name, so she gave me a different name that is neither "Larry" nor otherwise related to it. My strong suspicion is that I was given a Yiddish name, after a relative, and the English name was more or less an afterthought.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Kenneth Ken Kenny Kensington etc., etc., Kenkenelius of Kenholio-tonville

[The Lone Ranger]

I have this weird behavioral quirk. You know how in some cultures they believe that if you know someone's "true name," you have power over them? I don't actually believe that, of course, but some part of me finds that notion appealing.

As a consequence, I will not tell anyone my middle name. It's not even that it's embarrassing or anything; it's a perfectly fine name. I just won't tell anybody what it is. When I'm asked for a middle name on official documents, I just give the initial.

Weird, I know.

[BrotherMan]

Not weird at all. I usually enjoy the power I wield when people ask me my middle name.

It starts with the letter B but you'll never guess what it is.

[livius drusus]

Only your gebbeth knows.

[The Lone Ranger]

Interestingly enough, my resolution never to tell anyone my full name was indeed partly inspired by reading A Wizard of Earthsea when I was a kid.

[livius drusus]

I found the Earthsea approach to names very compelling.

[erimir]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

As a consequence, I will not tell anyone my middle name. It's not even that it's embarrassing or anything; it's a perfectly fine name. I just won't tell anybody what it is. When I'm asked for a middle name on official documents, I just give the initial.

Hmmm...

Is it Bob?

[Ymir's blood]

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

Not weird at all. I usually enjoy the power I wield when people ask me my middle name.

It starts with the letter B but you'll never guess what it is.

Bortlestiltskin!

[lisarea]

Bornelius. They're both Bornelius.

[ShottleBop]

It's probably "Baggins". Or "Bilbo".

[thedoc]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

I have this weird behavioral quirk. You know how in some cultures they believe that if you know someone's "true name," you have power over them? I don't actually believe that, of course, but some part of me finds that notion appealing.

As a consequence, I will not tell anyone my middle name. It's not even that it's embarrassing or anything; it's a perfectly fine name. I just won't tell anybody what it is. When I'm asked for a middle name on official documents, I just give the initial.

Weird, I know.

It's interesting that when I tell people I only have a middle initial, they often don't believe me and think I just don't want to tell what it is. Is lying so common that everyone just assumes that you are lying from the start?

[thedoc]

Barfolomew?

[ZEZOZE]

Neil. it means champion.

Michael Neil...a god-like champion.

[viscousmemories]

My oldest brother got my Dad's middle name, the rest of my brothers and I got Marius and all my sisters got Mary. Yes, Catholic.

[livius drusus]