Are middle names necessary?

How many people know your middle name?  Are you ashamed of it, delighted by it?  Middle names are phasing out.  125 years ago, most Congressmen used their middle initial and now, most don’t.  But that’s Congress.  In ancient Roman times, only the elite had middle names.  The first name was for the individual and the last was for the family.  The middle name was a nickname of sorts.  Come the 1200’s in Italy, only the upper class had middle names, but that didn’t last long.  Two hundred years later, middle names became popular among all people.  The middle name offers an advantage to help us stand out amongst others with whom we share our first and last names.  In our current society, we’ve become numbers and that’s how the system tells the difference.  If you’ve given your child a name that they don’t love, they can always use their middle name.  Just a thought.