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JOHN F KENNEDY.
Michael D Higgins.
Franklin D Roosevelt.
Michael J Fox.
John D Rockefeller.
John B Keane.
The list goes on and on.
Lots of very successful people have incorporated that normally-useless middle name into their every day, and not just for passport form purposes.
It may have helped them on their path to success, according to a new study, as people may have perceived them to be smarter because of it.
Reseachers at the University of Limerick have shown that people can benefit from displaying the initial.
More than 500 people participated in the study which involved the assessment of various essays.
In one example, an essay of an author by the name of David Clark was evaluated less positively than the same essay written by an author named David F. P. R. Clark.
“At the start of this research project we discussed various findings suggesting that names have a tremendous impact of person perception and on life in general,” explained Dr. Eric R. Igou who works at the Department of Psychology at UL.
“We then wanted to examine the impact of middle names, and in particular the impact of middle initials, on perceptions that people form about others with versus without middle initials in their names.
“Middle initials are often displayed in contexts in which intellectual achievements matter. We thus predicted that the display of middle initials would increase perception of intellectual capacities and performance, and this is exactly what we found.
“Importantly, however, these person perceptions are limited to contexts where intellectual achievements are central.”
The middle initials effect only occurred in domains where intellectual performance matters (for example, intellectual quizzes) but not where intellectual performances are secondary (for example, team sports).
Importantly, the middle initials effect on inferences about intellectual performance was based on the perception of status. For example, a person with no middle initial was seen as lesser in status than one with middle initials, and this difference accounted largely for the inferences about intellectual performance.
According to Limerick, this is the first detailed study to establish a link between middle name initials and perceptions of status, and intellectual capacities and performance.
“These findings have implications for the psychology of person perception and in particular for inferences about people’s status and intellect,” the university said in a statement.
The custom of the wider population giving middle names began in the 19th Century. Before then, the nobility were already giving their children multiple names to help denote family lineage.
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Pat E. O’Dors. ( unemployed builder )
Good one, Loop.
Beer garden at an Irish Pub in the states. “Come and relax on our “paddy o’furniture”
Get A. Life
End A Kenny!
After 23rd May 2013.
23 May 2014 ?
And the most famous of them all Jaysus H. Christ
What does the H stand for?
I actually have no idea …. !
It appears to be Harold , a miss pronunciation of the word ‘ hallowed’.
Jaysus Holy Christ
Holy
World’s richest people, ie the most successful people in the world:
1. Bill Gates
2. Carlos Slim Helu
3. Warren Buffett
4. Amancio Ortega
5. Larry Ellison
6. Charles Koch
7. David Koch
8. Sheldon Adelson
9. Christy Walton
10. Jim Walton
No a letter followed by a dot in the whole list!
I wish my middle name was ‘Slim’
Looking at the quotes think the study focuses on people’s perceptions of people with middle initials rather than actual success of people with middle initials. Despite what the journal report implies.
Typical bs mindset of academics. Successful businessmen are too busy doing shit to worry about if someone has a letter in their name or whether others will regard them more highly if they have.
Killjoy,
All you have to do is rename your twitter account.
Never use a double barrel name though, they tend to be assassins…
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Wilkes booth
Marcus Julius Brutus
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan
James Earl Ray.
They all killed people with middle initials!!
Michael J Foxes, middle name is Andrew
Ah a silent J, makes sense!
Homer J. Simpson. ( the J stands for Jay).
Gusty O. Windflaps
I think people are missing the point, the article is about other peoples perception of other people who use their middle initial not the achievements of people so comments about successful people who do not use their middle initial i.e. a list of successful people without a middle initial are redundant and just show the people who wrote them completely missed the point of the article
My father and all his brothers named their eldest sons after their grandfather. The way we separated ourselves was by way of the middle initial. Just to add to the cofusion my father was also named after his grandfather. There was 5 of us with the same name!
That’s a whole lot of Bennys on the loose!!!
What a pointless study
The point is after the middle initial.
I don’t have a middle name, what happens to me?
I think we should form a club. Thank God I at least don’t live in America where some websites have a compulsory middle initial field.
Well I think that these people were more successful in their endeavors:
Marcus Crassus – The richest man in history. His wealth by today’s standards would be worth $2 trillion.
Genghis Khan – Established the largest empire in history.
Marie Curie – The first woman in history to win the Nobel Prize. She discovered radioactivity and the element radium.
Alan Turing – The father of computer science and the man responsible for cracking the enigma code used by the Nazis.
Yuri Gagarin – The first person in history to journey into outer space.
And the list goes on and on. Using the first letter of your middle name doesn’t seem to be so special after all, does it?
Genghis wasnt even his original name too. It was Temujiin.
Crassus died with the most valuable oesophagus in history.
Barack O Bama.
I find it a snob thing
Of course, lack of twitter handles can be a great leveller too…
God my dad used to do this with his name, notions of grandeur!!
Some of us don’t have a middle name.
Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo.
Wyn D. Bottom
Shouldn’t it be Michael J. Fox, John F. Kennedy etc since an abbreviation is followed by a ‘.’
UK should be U.K. etc?
In America, yes. But in British and Irish English it appears the rule is to follow an abbreviation by a full stop only when the last letter is not the last letter of the word. So “Dr”, “Mr”, “UK”, but “St.”, “Dr.”, “Ave.” (street, drive, avenue – although the first and third are potentially controversial). That’s my understanding anyway.
Apparently this only applies to men?
The have a middle letter often means you are a tw@t and you think you’re better than people
Up to the trwentieth century the vast majority of Irish people had only one Christian name. The Irish, Scots and the Afrikaners used to name the first son after his paternal grandfather and the second after his maternal grandfather. With girls it went the other way. It is agreat help when one is engaged in genealogy.
Hmm, Brian T. M. A. Ó Dálaigh seems a bit unwieldy to me!
Wouldn’t work for me – my middle name is Liam.
Anna T Curtan, could be silly at times.
Don’t ya mean Annette Curtan?!!!
No
Pull yourself together tony
I’ll try Paul but too many letters getting in the way.
Is that a draw?
Kieran M D
I love the show House
I use my middle and conformation name in my e-mail. Should really do it elsewhere too
Don’t have middle name !
Mick O Fitzpatrick, hmz i like!
John a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z smith , very intelligent guy I know
‘that normally useless middle name’ the cheek of you. I’m known by my middle name. I find it very useful.
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