What's In A Name?

So, you might find yourself wondering what "code name shammara" means. Shammara is my middle name, which I don't actually use too often, making me wonder what was the purpose of having a middle name in the first place. I know there are some people who don't have them.

Well, since I did research in my last job I decided to see what was up with middle names. Here's what I found right off the bat from genealogy.com:

Few Americans were giving their children middle names in the 17th century until the German immigrants introduced this naming custom to America. They were in the habit of giving their children two given names at baptism. The first given name was a spiritual name, often a favorite saint's name, and the second one, which would later be known as the middle name, was the secular name. The secular name, or "call name" was the name by which the child was known and the name used in legal records. It was not uncommon for the spiritual name to be the same for all the children of the same sex within the family.

While the Germans would bring this custom to America, it was not until the early 19th century that the custom caught on with others. By the 1840s, it had grown into a popular practice. According to a study of college records, in 1840 about 92 percent of the students at Princeton had middle names. This custom would continue to grow and by World War I it was assumed that everyone in America had a middle name.

So we have zee Germans to thank for our middle names. Danke!

As for me and my middle name, like I said, I rarely use it. All through grade and high school I never used it to the point where people would ask me "What's your middle name?" and I wouldn't tell them. To me it was special, something that was my secret for me only. People would always ask and I'd say nothing. This was a game that went on all four years of high school and then everyone would tell me "We'll hear your middle name come graduation!" and I'd politely tell them they would not, as I was only going to use my middle initial. Unfortunately I failed to give my mother this news and when she filled out my graduation papers she put my full name. So come graduation over the loudspeakers I heard it. At that point it wasn't that big of a deal and I had a good laugh (really, it wasn't that serious) and literally the next day people had totally either forgotten how to pronounce it or what it was so my middle name went back to being my little secret once again.

But this time I'm going to let it out to play, have some fun. Anchor my blog:).