• @linearchaos
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    194 months ago

    I used to work with a guy that was from China. He only had a first in a last name. He was going to college here and the college required everyone to have a middle initial as part of their login. They just used his last initial as his middle initial.

    • @[email protected]
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      334 months ago

      Wait does everyone there have a middle name? I’m Dutch and I don’t have a middle name. I figured that was quite common also in the English speaking world

      • @[email protected]
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        4 months ago

        My grandfather and father dont have a middle name.

        Both Sicilian (Father born in the U.S though)

      • @linearchaos
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        34 months ago

        He’s the only person I’ve known here in almost 50 years without a middle name. It’s quite possible other people haven’t had a middle name but it’s never come up.

      • @DontRedditMyLemmy
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        34 months ago

        The famous poet Edgar Poe also didn’t have a middle name

        • Caveman
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          44 months ago

          He does, it’s Allan

      • @someguy3
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        24 months ago

        Not that I’m aware of Gerry F. Flap.

      • @ripcord
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        14 months ago

        deleted by creator

      • @linearchaos
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        74 months ago

        I don’t know that it’s absolutely mandatory but it’s definitely pervasive.

      • @JusticeForPorygon
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        4 months ago

        I think so, when immigrants get IDs in the US I believe they choose/are given a middle name

        • @ylph
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          84 months ago

          Not true, I am a naturalized US citizen, and don’t have a middle name - it was never an issue and I was never asked to come up with one. My son was born in the US and also doesn’t have a middle name.

          • @raef
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            34 months ago

            My cousin was given his mother’s maiden name as a middle name when he joined the navy

    • @[email protected]
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      124 months ago

      I knew that middle names are common in the US but I didn’t know it’s so deep in the culture