Curiouser and Curiouser Trivia Quiz

Answer: Not one of them had a middle name

In the 17th and 18th and most of the 19th centuries, it was uncommon in England and its colonial possessions for people to have middle names. Only after the Hanovers from Germany brought with them their middle names, did the British and subsequently, the Americans, start the practice of adopting middle names.

Only three of the first 18 US presidents did have a middle name. In total, 20 out the first 46 presidents did not have a middle name.

John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, was given his middle name in honor of his maternal great-grandfather, John Quincy. To distinguish himself from his father, this president referred to himself as as "JQA".

The ninth president, William Henry Harrison, was named for his maternal grandfather, William Bassett and for his paternal uncle, Henry Harrison.

The eleventh president, James Knox Polk's middle name was in honour of his maternal grandfather, James Knox.

Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president. Every president between the 28th and 46th presidents had middle names.

Answer: Reagan and Clinton

Ronald Wilson Reagan (40th US president) was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. He had an older brother, Neil (called "Moon") born in 1908. Their parents were Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan, a travelling salesman. While Ronald was named after his mother, the 28th US president was Woodrow Wilson (whose tenure was 1913-1921, which meant Ronald was born two years before he became president thereby ruling out any namesake connection).

The 42nd president, William Jefferson Blythe III was born in Hope, Arkansas on August 19, 1946. His father, a travelling salesman, died in a car accident three months before he was born. The senior Blythe's middle name was reputed to have been chosen to honour Thomas Jefferson, the third American president, though there is little information to corroborate this. Junior was ostensibly named after his father. In 1950, Bill's mother Virginia married Roger Clinton in Arkansas. Bill assumed his stepfather's name but did not formally adopt it as his surname, legally until he was 15.

Answer: Ford

The 38th US president, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913. He was the only child of Dorothy Ayer Gardner and Leslie Lynch King Sr., a wool trader in Omaha, Nebraska. King Senior was abusive so his wife left with their son and went to live with her sister in Oak Ridge, Illinois. Three years later she went to live with her parents who had relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan. She met Gerald Rudolff Ford and married him on February 1, 1917, and started calling her son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. soon after (though Ford never formally adopted Dorothy's son).
Gerald Ford Jr. formally changed his name as an adult in 1935, to honour his stepfather but adopted a more conventional spelling of his middle name.

You could say Gerald Ford was born a king but became a president!

Answer: True

Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884, the oldest child of three of John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Young Truman. He was named after his maternal uncle, Harrison "Harry" Young. His middle initial, "S", is not an abbreviation of any one particular name. However, it honours both his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. This was a common practice in Southern and Central America at the time.

While it is not an abbreviation, Truman always recorded his name and signature as "Harry S. Truman".

Answer: Ulysses

Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant on April 27, 1822. He was a noted American military officer and served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

Hiram was his maternal grandfather's name, but as a child, he was always known as Ulysses. The congressman who nominated Grant to West Point erroneously added 'Simpson' as his middle name, and somehow, this stuck, which made him Hiram Ulysses Simpson Grant.

Answer: They were known by their middle names

The 22nd and 24th US President Stephen Grover Cleveland was named after Steven Grover, the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Caldwell New Jersey. It was in this church where the future president's father, Richard Falley Cleveland, was a pastor at the time. Never known as Stephen, he was called Grover from childhood.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, was the son of Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Janet E. Woodrow. Thomas was known in his childhood as "Tommy". After he graduated from college he became known by his middle name (from his mother's maiden name) and became Woodrow as an adult.

John Calvin Coolidge, the 30th US president, was named after his father and also the Protestant Reformer, John Calvin. Although named for his father, Coolidge was always addressed by his middle name.

Answer: 1

Of the first 46 presidents, the first names of six were James, five were John and four were William. However, during this period only one US President has had the middle name of John - the 45th President Donald John Trump.

Unusual for a US president, neither of his names has a connection to his father Frederick Christ Trump or his mother Mary Anne Trump née MacLeod. However, his elder brother (he had four siblings) was called Fred Jr.

Answer: True

The Eisenhauer (German for iron miner) family migrated from Germany to the Province of Pennsylvania in 1741. It is unclear when the German name Eisenhauer was anglicised to Eisenhower. David Dwight Eisenhower was the third of seven sons born to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth nee Stover Eisenhower. His mother quickly reversed the order of her sons' names to avoid having two "Davids" in the family.

President Eisenhower's nickname "Ike" came from his childhood. At school his elder broth Edgar was known as Big Ike and Dwight was Little Ike; Ike being a contraction of their surname. By the time he finished school, Dwight was known simply as Ike.

Answer: Joseph Robinette Biden

If a US president was given a middle name, the most commonly represented was a mother or grandmother's family name. These include Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Richard Milhous Nixon, and Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Joe Robinette Biden Jr. was named after his father. Biden senior's middle name was his mother's maiden name.

The second most common source of a middle name was the presidents' father or grandfather. These include James Abram Garfield, Chester Alan Arthur, Herbert Clark Hoover, and James Earl Carter.

Answer: Harding and Obama

One of the most curious presidential middle names is Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th President. Gamaliel is the name of a powerful figure who saved the Apostles from being executed (Acts: 5 in the Old Testament). His mother Phoebe had given him his middle name of Gamaliel as she hoped that her son would enter the church. In Christian tradition, while Harding became a Baptist who often talked about Christianity, he did not attend church and indeed never pursued a career in the church.

Because Hussein was President Obama's middle name, he has been subjected to negative and xenophobic abuse because of it. The name means "handsome," "beautiful," or "comely." It is associated with Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, who is revered as a martyr by Shia Muslims. Obama's paternal grandfather, Onyango, a Kenyan had converted from tribal religion to Roman Catholicism early in life. When Seventh-day Adventist missionaries visited Kenya many locals were baptised into the church, including Onyango. Later he converted to Islam, he took the first name Hussein. His son was called Baraka Hussein Obama. When he attended a Christian missionary school, he changed Baraka to Barack and converted to Christianity. He gave his son the same name, Barack Hussein Obama. Junior went on to become the 44th US president and was inaugurated under that name.