if I was a boy I'd change my name to Szandor

[kleenexwoman]

I really like people with unusual middle names.

Take, for example, my two greatest artistic heroes: Philip Kindred Dick and Crispin Hellion Glover. Kindred and Hellion. Out of context, are merely two slightly unusual dictionary words. Taken in tandem, they could be archetypical opposites, a mythological dichotomy.
Not that the rest of their names aren't interesting. "Philip" is a very lovely name, dignified, patrician, and simple. Unfortunately, it means "Lover of horses" in Greek. "Dick" is also an unfortunate last name, even more so because it means "Fat" in German. Instead of putting up with "chubby horsefucker" jokes, Phil named his "alternate self" character in VALIS "Horselover Fat", which is actually quite a cool name as well. "Kindred" is not his original middle name, but he didn't choose it for any particular symbolism; it's just his mother's maiden name.
As for Crispin, his name means "curly-haired" in Latin. It's also the name of an apple often also known as the Mutsu apple; the blurb on the web page I got this information from says "Bite into Crispin for a great crunch and mouthful of sweet juice!" (Do you think he'd let me?) Another page (I have too much time to spend on this) says that "the skin colour is a yellowy green, often flushed with an earthy orange. The flesh is creamy white with a fresh hint of green, juicy, and firm. The flavour is sweet, almost honey-like." Also, St. Crispin is the patron saint of leather and lace. Yowza.
(ETA: See drworm's comment below for a slightly more exhaustive and accurate discussion of Crispin's name. Am still going with "patron saint of leather and lace" because it's more interesting and provocative than the strict truth.)

Another name that I find interesting is that of fictional character Aloysius X. L. Pendergast. A weird name for a very weird detective. Let us dissect it:
I find the name "Aloysius" to be inexplicably funny, like the word "pants" or the entire city of Kalamazoo. For those who are scratching their heads and going "A-loy-see-us?", it's pronounced "Al-uh-wish-us"; for an audio guide, rent the very funny movie "O Brother Where Art Thou?" and wait until the scene where they're in the radio station trying to get the old man to give them more money.
Other versions of the name "Aloysius" include "Louis" or "Lewis", and also "Luigi", another funny name. St. Aloysius Gonzaga is the patron saint of people with AIDS and also of teenagers.
X.L.: People with two middle names have greedy parents. Somewhere, there's some poor person walking around without a middle name, or just one letter, like Harry S Truman, because an eccentric albino FBI agent's parents just had to stick that extra X in there. "X" in itself is automatically cool (sarcastically) as a middle name, just ask Perdita X. Dream (I mean Agnes Nitt). I'm betting the X stands for Xavier. I find it very amusing that his first three initials spell "Axl."
Just the name "Pendergast" does not strike me as an action-type name. "Pendergast" is a perfect name for a professor at a dusty university or a museum who spends ten years trying to decipher what he thinks is the Necronomicon but is actually "Ten Tasty Ways To Serve Fresh Elder God" (recipes include Cthulhu Sushi and Yog-Shoggoth Yogurt).

Last but not least, band names.
The two best band names, independent of their music, are The Rolling Stones and Radiohead. They could apply to any possible band or style of music.
It is impossible to say the name "Metallica" without sounding vaguely like a monster truck rally announcer. Try it; your voice will become loud and slightly stupid. "MetallicAAAH."
The name "Oingo Boingo" is impossible to say without sounding a little nasally, but that's mostly because the "oin" sound is very nasally. You can ameliorate this by doing what Manny on Ruthless Reviews did and calling them "Oingo-Fuck-Me-Boingo." I'm not sure what this means, or whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is very, very fun to say. It works best if you shriek the "fuck" a little bit. "Oingo-FUCK-Me-Boingo." There, wasn't that cathartic?

So...
What's your middle name? What does it mean? Who else has it? Does it fit you?

Comments

[maskmaster.livejournal.com]

I love the way you think.

Because I'm an anal-retentive freak...

[drworm.livejournal.com]

St. Aloysius is the patron saint of: AIDS care-givers, AIDS patients, Catholic youth, Jesuit students, relief from pestilence, sore eyes, teenage children, teenagers, and young people. The bear in Brideshead Revisited is named Aloysius.

There's some speculation that the 'L' in A.X.L. might stand for 'Leng,' as with good ol' Uncle Antoine.

And St. Crispin is patron of: cobblers, glove makers, lace makers, lace workers, leather workers, saddle makers, saddlers, shoemakers, tanners, weavers.

As for the Latin of Crispin's name... here are the two relevant dictionary listings:

crispo -are [to curl; to move rapidly , brandish]; intransit. partic. crispans -antis, [curly, wavy].

crispus -a -um [curly , curly-headed; trembling, quaking].

I've seen the "Crispin means curly-haired" thing before... but if you go by the Latin, that isn't necessarily true. Far as I can tell.

My own middle name is Carolyn. Because my grandmother, when she came to America from Croatia, had her name changed to 'Caroline' (apparently because her original name meant 'dear' in Croatian, and 'cara' is dear in Italian). But she always wanted to be Carolyn.

:is impressed:

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Clearly I did not do enough research.

Re: :is impressed:

[drworm.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not only semi-obsessed with Catholicism, but when I read Brideshead Revisited I totally looked up the name, and then ended up going through all these patron saints websites... so I recognized that. Also, I took four years of Latin in high school. And I remember someone on livejournal, I think, posting about Crispin's name meaning "curly-haired" and how that didn't seem to suit him. And I just had to be a dork and say "Well, the root doesn't necessarily have anything to do with hair. Besides, wtf does it matter anyway?"

I mean, my name means 'crowned one,' apparently. Do I have a crown? Not yet. Nope.

[ghostgecko.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've had Crispin apples, and I can attest to their deliciousness.

Lew *is* my middle name, because my first name just sucks.

And you can always call them "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo" if you don't have a bus to catch.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

And you can always call them "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo" if you don't have a bus to catch.

But then you've got the nasally thing with "Oingo Boingo" in the last two words again. Problem problem.
In a parallel universe, they were simply "The Mystic Knights".

[dr-ninjapants.livejournal.com]

hehe... patron saint of leather and lace... almost as cool as Vin Diesel being the patron saint of Guys You Don't Fuck With.

My middle name is and has always been 'Len'. Even when I changed my first name I kept the same middle name. For several reasons, such as nyah:

* I didn't want to touch on the spanky-ness that is completely renaming oneself, going with 'Daryn' was as spanky as I was willing to get, and I would have gone with just straight up 'Darren' as per the normal spelling if it really wasn't just so much easier to switch from 'Darcy' to 'Daryn'. And all this because I really wanted to change my name to Ryan but I just wasn't willing to get that wank-a-spank-a-licious

* I don't really care what my middle name is, I like Len OK and I think it made my parents feel better about the whole 'our kid is a transsexual and is changing her/his name from the one WE chose, boo hoo woe is us' thing that I was keeping the same middle name

* Less hassle in terms of changing documents

* 'Len', though generally associated with being a feminine name is really a unisex name like Drew or Alex

But yeah, so the reason that my middle name was ever 'Len' was cuz my dad has some aunt or something named Lenora and my mom has one named Lenore and so they figured they could make my middle name a namesake to both of them at once by just shortening it.

Oh, ok, I guess it's only in American, modern and certain areas that 'Len' is thought to be feminine and maybe it's just me cuz it's been my middle name always. I mean, I know it's the short version of Leonard... but apparently according to some stupid spank baby name site it's a masculine name and is like Hopi Indian and Scandanavian or something and means "flute, with a lion's hart"

Which translates to "my parents are a bunch of stupid fuckers who think they named me something OMG lyke to2lee kewl!!"

Uhhh... but I have a stick up my ass about people who name their kids stupid ass shit. But I think Crispin has the most awesome name ever. And I had no idea about Philip K. Dick's middle name til you just posted it today and now I think he's cool too.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Philip K. Dick is cool anyway. Michael Swanwick once wrote a story that was partially devoted to speculating on the true nature of that "K."

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

I'm still plotting out a potential name change for personal reasons, but right now, my middle name is Marie. It traces from Mary, which means 'sorrowful', and for many, many years, my mother thought my father had named me--he asked for the honor of giving me my middle name--after her, since her name was Mary, my middle name was Marie, q.e.d.

Unfortunately, we find out years later, he had this tendency with all his daughters (he had six): he named us all with middle names from his mistresses at the time. Mine comes from Marie Levin, a red-haired woman of middle years who occupied my father's attention at that time. :)

So, while Marie is a common name...I know distinctly I share it with Ms. Levin, should she still be alive, and I know why.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Goodness, that is quite a story. You win this thread, I think.

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

*gryns*

Didn't set out to, it's just family history.

[diraskyria.livejournal.com]

Actually, sometimes people with two middle names aren't really from greedy parents, but are being elaborate themselves and considering a confirmation name. ^_^

I like to do that. Makes my "full" name a whopping Laura Skylie Elizabeth-Catherine Engler. Technically born just Laura Elizabeth Engler, then I decided at age ten that Laura Elizabeth sucked, and that Skylie was better. Then fifteen came around, went through my confirmation and adopted the Catherine as my Catholic name because I think it's pretty. And it's kinda for my aunt, but she spells it with a K, which I don't think is as pretty.

No idea what Elizabeth or Catherine mean, though. Laura is "laurel-wreathed" or sometimes "Lady of Victory." Engler is, I think, an Americanized version of the german "engel," or "angel" (or, at least, I hope it is), and then Skylie is "Distorted Beauty" in Reidvyn. ^_^

I know that isn't just my middle name, but, my middle name is boring and i don't know much about it. Pretty much was given it because my mom loved Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Elizabeth was her middle name, and she decided against calling me Erin, Mary, or Grace in the long run.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Skylie is "Distorted Beauty" in Reidvyn.

Aha, your very own language. Clever clever.
I think it is quite pretty and fits you a little more than Laura does. From now on I think I may just call you Skylie.

[diraskyria.livejournal.com]

That would be very cool. ^_^

My middle name...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

...is Leigh. The English meaning has something to do with a field. Hebrew (Lea), I believe, means "bitter"...but my favorite meaning is from the Celts...poet. It goes with my first name "Tracy," which one way to look at it is from the Celtic and means "Battler/Warrior." So I like being a Warrior poet.

Re: My middle name...

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Ooh neat.
In Genesis, Leah was Rachel's sister-in-law; they were both married to Jacob. Although I think that the name "Mara" means "bitter" in Hebrew, since "maror" means "bitter herb"...but I could be wrong.

Re: My middle name...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

Just looked it up in one of my baby name books.

Leah is Hebrew for weary.

I still like poet better. :)

[ghostgecko.livejournal.com]

He must have taken the middle name from my dad . . . my dad is Douglas A., his twin brother Dennis B. - no actual name attached, just A and B. Just slightly weird. You can imagine how many times he's had to explain that while filling out forms. And then my poor sister Jana, no one can pronounce or even spell her name correctly. Katelyn got named before variations of Caitlin became popular (mom started a trend) and is annoyed she can't hardly find keychains and things with her name spelled correctly. She's only comforted by the fact that Caitlin should properly be pronounced a bit like "cat-leen", not "kate-lynn", so all those people are wrong. :)
It's funny, the Post had an article on weird names today. Apparently odd names start out popular in "upper class" families, and when they become pupular in "lower income" circles, the upper class move on to something else.
I also noticed that "Elijah" has rocketed up the popularity ladder, which points to a scary fact: crazed LoTR fangirls are breeding!

[drworm.livejournal.com]

I also noticed that "Elijah" has rocketed up the popularity ladder, which points to a scary fact: crazed LoTR fangirls are breeding!

*cries* And I used to like the name Elijah too! I'm also pissed off that there's an actress named Elisha (last name Cuthbert). Because, in the Bible, Elisha is sort of Elijah's successor... and I always liked that name too, dammit.

If it was a graceful option, I would totally name myself 'Briar Rose,' per your suggestion. Or, wait, Egalantine, which apparently amounts to about the same thing, only more goth-y. Or DrWorm, of course.

[vicfitz82.livejournal.com]

Victor Scott Alexander Fitzsimons. So, I have Alexander the Great's name, which means I have a lot to live up to. Scott Thompson of "Kids in the Hall" has my name, too (or I have his, either way).