Barack Hussein Obama - Lets just include all middle Names

Posted on February 27, 2008

Full names are important. Imagine how difficult things would be without middle names? It is already difficult enough if looking for John Jones or Adam Smith.

Middle names also sometimes tell people where we came from or who our parents wanted to honor. My son carries his great grandfather’s name - which in turn was his grandfather’s. My middle name is my father’s only brother’s name. Some people give as a middle name the name of someone famous they want to honor. Sometimes a first name does the same - naming someone in honor of someone famous - perhaps the first man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, though most parents are not blessed with precognition and able to name a daughter after someone who is not famous at the time of her birth!

Now certainly not names that parents give need to be carried through life for instance I would not blame Moon Unit Zappa for opting for something different as an adult. I once knew a couple who felt both of their names were unsuited to their world views as tree huggers - they legally became the Forests.

This legal option is available to any one - although the legal costs can be a burden, as can an unwanted name. But people involved in politics need to be conscious of the message conveyed by their names. And it has not stopped them from going to court and applying the name that they want in place of the one their parents gave them - as is the case of Granny D and Vermin Supreme.

That being the case I would have to assume that any candidate’s full legal name is appropriate for use when addressing them. If it were not they would have changed it, especially those who are lawyers and could have simply asked a court to give them something different.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
John Sidney McCain III
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton
Michael Dale Huckabee
Ronald Ernest Paul

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