15. What is one of Oscar Wilde's middle names?
From Quiz Oscar Wilde: King of Quotes
Answer:
O'Fflahertie
His birth certificate reads Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wilde, but O'Flahertie (and sometimes O'Flaherty) appears at later times on a range of documents. He added the Wills later, as did both his father and older brother.
Both of his parents were keen students of Irish history and legend, which clearly influenced their choice of names. Oscar may have either English or Irish roots; the Irish one related to a character in the Fenian cycle whose grandmother was transformed into a deer - hence the name meaning friend of deer - while the English root would have a meaning something along the lines of god's spear. Irish history was probably what inspired their use of the English version of the Gaelic 'Ó Flaithbheartaigh', a clan name associated with the west coast and resistance to Viking invaders. Its English meaning is "bright prince". Fingal is an area north of Dublin, originally a Viking settlement called 'Fine Gall', meaning territory of foreigners.
With such a weight of names that refer to others, it is no wonder that Wilde developed a sense of the importance of establishing a sense of self. He is often quoted (with no source) as having said, "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." In 'De Profundis' (the 50,000-word letter he wrote to Lord Alfred Douglas in 1897, reflecting on the path he had taken in his life, and whether he would change it if given the opportunity), he wrote "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." His conclusion, despite all the suffering it had brought, was that he had lived the life he had to live.
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