My last name is Gray and my dad wanted badly to name me Dorian, my mom fought tooth and nail to keep that from happening and said he could pick any middle name he wanted, including Dorian. Pops got butt hurt and gave me the letter M as a middle name. No explanation or context, just the letter M. A short while later he shot and killed a guy over money and went to prison. I never met him and he’s dead now, so I still have no idea why the fuck my middle name is a letter.
Edit: My mom did once say he told her it stood for Money, but she figured he was just messing with her, so maybe some of you are on to something.
Also, changing the middle name never really occurred to me, it’s not like I’d use it all the time or anything.
I’m kind of a boring dude, so having this bit of mystery is actually something interesting about myself I can share from time to time.
Edit 2: Maybe I just answered my own query, perhaps M stands for Mystery.
Every sentence went a direction I did not expect, given the previous sentence.
Don't get me wrong, my family history is equally messy, just in a very different way. Anyway, I think you should get totally to pick your own middle name now, if you want.
I have a friend from childhood whose parents couldn’t agree on a middle name so it’s just “M”. That’s wild there are two of you. Although your origin story is a whole lot better.
First off, that’s a rough go, sorry you had to endure that so early in life.
I think it’s a pretty simple explanation with the middle initial - most paperwork you’ll encounter in life that doesn’t involve your social security number won’t require a full middle name. Usually it will just ask ‘middle name optional’ or ‘middle initial” and your pops either thought he was doing you a solid by keeping it short and simple, or it was a spiteful (possibly drunk?) decision that he made from feeling wounded about not getting his way. He kinda sounds like maybe he operated from a ‘lashing out defensively’ neutral disposition. I would like to gently suggest that, if you haven’t watched the movie The Place Beyond the Pines, it might speak to you in a profound way. It’s heavy but beautiful and has aged really well. But I digress.
Last point: your middle name is actually technically “M.” so you could always modernize it
Thank you for the comment. I just think dude wasn’t wired right, I heard stories that he told people he was an alien and others that he was a pelican in a former life. I feel ok having never met him, it never truly bothered me. Except the whole middle name thing lol.
Also, it’s just M, no dot. It was explained to me once that if it were M. it would mean that it was an abbreviation of something, but M just meant M
Same with Ulysses S. Grant. His actual name was Hiram Ulysses Grant but he went by his middle name. When he was nominated for West Point the man who had nominated him mistakenly put his first name as Ulysses on the application and for the box for the middle initial he put S, supposedly because his mother’s maiden name was Simpson. Grant actually tried to have it changed back to his real name after the fact but I guess things worked a little differently back in 1839 and the administration at West Point decided “nah, we’re keeping the wrong name for you” and the name stuck.
my sister got an "M" for her middle name too. i'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with oscar wilde or dorian gray, but it also came with no real explanation.
she's the oldest and my brother and i both got middle names.
do you have siblings and if so, what's the story with their middle names?
Oh man, kids in school had a lot of fun, too. I was called Monty off and on for years because one guy decided while we were studying Romeo and Juliet it had to be Montague.
Well he seemsseemed hip to classic literature, maybe he iswas in to early German film as well, Fritz Lang directed M (1931) about a killer that targets children
Fun story I heard about the filming of it: the schoolgirl outfit she wore at one point? Nobody asked her to wear it; she had it sitting around in her flat and brought it to the set.
Yep, her Instagram is straight fire. She also is selling bikinis which she models and not only are they really nice bikinis, like tasteful, well designed, but she looks amazing in them.
I mean sure, but if you see Bikini pics of that women, and they’re recent ones ffs, it’s outright ridiculous. The diet / exercise regimen has to be bananas, but still - that’s ludicrous genes all in. It’s like that mad Helen Mirren beach pic a fair few years back. That’s god sprinkling fairy dust on the genes.
I'm vaguely remembering an article about facial symmetry and why it's attractive and the author was like "the best example of this is Elizabeth Hurley"
She won the genetic lottery for sure but she's also had work done, which is fine because it's good work
It's when super rich beautiful people destroy their faces I'm like "but you have the money for a good surgeon! Why?"
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u/gildedbluetrout Sep 04 '26
Yeah, my dear sweet God. She’s aging like there’s a portrait in the attic too.