I like middle names. Unfortunately noone seems to use them.



Mine is timothy.



I was talking with a friend about names the other afternoon. How sometimes, it seems, people have very strange first and last names. Almost as if their parents didn't really think it through. Both my friend and I could recall people from school who had strange first and last names. For example, I knew a girl named Brook Brooks. My friend knew a guy named Bryan O'Bryan. And another named Mary Derryburry.



One can't help but wonder what the parents were thinking.



The only thing that I could come up with was that most parents when they are naming kids are including the middle name when they are trying it out.



It would not sound as strange to hear the names Brook Ellen Brooks, Bryan Anthony O'Bryan or Mary Alice Derryburry.



But I guess in their "we-just-had-a-baby" bliss, the parents go brain dead and end up screwing up their kids... but then again, most parents I know have the name picked out months before the baby even arrives. So really, they don't have an excuse.



My name is Shannon Timothy Barrett. Personally, I think it works pretty well.