There is something wrong with Presidents' names.

Please take this post with the grain of salt with which it was intended to go.

There is something wrong with Presidents' names. I think this makes them all crazy and is the cause of their wanting to be president in the first place. As far as I can tell, William Howard Taft, the last President with facial hair, was also the last one with a completely normal name profile.

Here is my analysis, from present to past:

George Walker Bush - Walker is not a "normal" name. A middle name that is not a normal first name counts as an abnormality.

William Jefferson Clinton - Not his name. It's really William Jefferson Blythe (III or IV, he's not sure). And besides, Jefferson is suspect as a name (see above).

George Herbert Walker Bush - Two middle names, unacceptable. Plus, one of them is Walker.

Ronald Wilson Reagan - Wilson is not a "normal" first name.

James Earl Carter - Would be normal, except he didn't use is. He was sworn in as Jimmy Carter. Rejection of name: abnormal

Gerald Rudolph Ford - Would be normal, but it is not his original name. He was born Leslie King, or something like that.

Richard Milhous Nixon - MILHOUS

Lyndon Baines Johnson - BAINES

John Fitzgerald Kennedy - FITZGERALD

Dwight David Eisenhower - Not his name; it was David Dwight

Harry S Truman - S

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - DELANO

Herbert Clark Hoover - CLARK

Calvin Coolidge - Not his name: John Calvin

Warren Gamaliel Harding - I know Gamaliel is a name, but come on.

Woodrow Wilson - Not his name: Thomas Woodrow.

Case Closed.

usually has three names.

Anyone without a middle name can't be president*

on edit: ok let's narrow that claim down to post-war presidents.

John Wayne Gacy; Mark David Chapman, etc.

Interstingly, their names seem to be more normal than Presidents'.

the Presidents have a middle name that sounds like a surname.

So any expectant parents out there - you know what to do when you name your child.

my daughter's middle name is McKenna AND she's related to Bab's

:patriot:

Dahmer and not Jeffery Lionel Dahmer or Charlie Manson and not Charles Milles Manson?

it helps to have alliteration if you want to be POTUS:

Calvin Coolidge
Woodrow Wilson

Ronald Wilson Reagan

Count the letters in each name and put them side by side. What do you get?

666

insane anglo WaRloRd.

evil guy's name.

Not to steal your post, gwb, but I just can't let Grover Norquist get away with having that name!

Delano, Wilson, and Walker are perfectly "normal" names. The use of a family name as a middle name is quite common, particularly among families with lots of social connections who like to honor relatives or close family friends. Why you would find honoring family friends objectionable is beyond me.

Jefferson is of course a tribute to a famous American--one who takes a back seat only to Washington and Lincoln in embodying the greatness and promise of the American spirit. Speaking of which, the name Clark is not only a common first name, but is a name primarily associated with that most patriotic of icons, Clark "Superman" Kent. I simply cannot fathom why you find patriotic names objectionable, unless your problem is with patriotism itself.

Both Earl and Rudolph are ordinary Christian names and, if not among the first-tier in popularity, do at least have the added bonus of being the names of popular and emulation worthy television protagonists. Could it be that you have an instinctive dislike for upstanding role models?

I concede that Fitzgerald is a distinctly ethnic name, but it's also a quite common name among that particular ethnic group. I can only conclude that you are, for some reason, prejudiced against the Irish, perhaps on the basis on anti-Catholicism. So let me ask you... are you a Know-Nothing or a Klansman?

Gamaliel is a name from the Bible. So apparently you hate the Bible as well.

Your problem with presidential names is rather quite revealing. I would suggest, sir, that you spend a little less time looking at people's names and spend a little more time reflecting on what you find looking back at you in the mirror.


PS,
For the life of me I don't know what the fuck is up with "Milhous"

I'm betting the "Jefferson" comes from Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.

And what's wrong with the name Milhous?

Jeff Davis himself was named after Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson being a well established old money name running back to the earliest of the Tidewater gentry.

Being a southerner myself, I can assure you... naming a child "Jefferson" is always a tribute to the Sage of Monticello.

that K was the best middle initial to have.

I kind of agree as I was a Clarkie (Welsey* K Clark).

*on edit: that should be Wesley - anyone who's read my reply in the Lounge (on another thread) should know why my spellingg's going wrong..

Barack?

but if he becomes the next POTUS I will jump for joy.

the only remotely weird names i see here are "milhous," "gamaliel," maybe if you stretch a point "delano" is somewhat unusual

nothing weird about changing one's name to something more striking, esp. if you plan a career in the public eye, and for the love of crap if my name was leslie king, i'd change it too

but honestly the only weird thing i see about this list is how "standard" the names are really, not too many vowels or ethnic or anything at all colorful, these are some really boring names if we didn't know they were all presidents

having an initial for a middle name or have a double middle name is not all that odd to me, i know older family members who do

did he have a middle name?


Of course, he wasn't elected President, at least not at first.