Silly afternoon poll

[mrissa]

Which US Presidential middle name do you like least? Remember, you're voting on the name, not the guy.

[Poll #1824845]

Yeah, I'll have a run-off, probably. Unless there's a clear consensus. I'm looking at you, Gamaliel.

Comments

[clarentine]

Milhous needs an "e" to my eye. >:-)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no kidding. And another L, ideally. "Millhouse," I coudl be okay with. But "Milhous" just looks squished.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I read it twice on Wikipedia to make sure. I mean, Wikipedia is not the world's only source. But still, it's the sort of thing they'd tend to fight over if wrong.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I like Gamaliel! It rolls trippingly off the tongue. Grover's just... Groveresque.

[teleidoplex]

Yeah, I'd say Gamaliel is actually my _favorite_ name on either list. If I had kids, it'd be a contender.

Says the girl who seriously floated the idea of "Avada Kedavra Higgins" as a potential name. It'd be great! Her name is a killing word!

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Gamaliel: Galadriel's less popular cousin?

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

I was lobbying for her to add obscure Tolkien characters into the poll, but alas, twas not to be...

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I just had no idea any we'd ever had a Tolkien elf as President. Or perhaps one of the less-well-known archangels.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's more the latter.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Gamaliel the Elder was a member of the Sanhedrin and the Apostle Paul's law teacher. He's a saint of both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, although there's no good evidence he was a Christian.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

I love Gamaliel!

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

Now that I've researched it, I do, too. It's a good touchstone; Harding could have used more rabbinical wisdom.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Grover is only one consonant away from grovel.

Delano and Walker are kind of cool.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I don't know, Gamaliel strikes me not so much as a bad name, but someone who might pull out a flaming sword and smite me if I piss them off in a dark alley.

[nenya_kanadka]

I can't believe Gamaliel is winning/losing! It's a very euphonic name to me. (Also, I have always liked the story about him mentoring St Paul--and oh, neat, he was an actual guy with enough history to have an article on Wikipedia? Cool!)

Milhous on the other hand. IDK. It reminds me of a scrunched-up dirty grey mouse. And may also be one I have difficulty separating in my head from the bearer of it.

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

There's an Al Stewart song from his album Past Present and Future:

Warren Gameliel Harding
Alone in the White House, watching the sun
Come up on the morning of 1921
I just want someone to talk to
To talk to
To talk to

which is the only reason I knew who that one was....

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

+1

Love Al Stewart. His songs are so useful when I play trivia.

[pameladean]

I must join the chorus defending Gamaliel. It is the BEST middle name on the list.

P.

[nenya_kanadka]

Birchard's only two votes behind right now! Maybe I should change my vote, I forget who I voted for but I know it was neither of those. :D

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I actually knew a Gamaliel (first name, not middle, so far as I'm aware) in college, and always thought it was a pretty cool name.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

What's with the Gamaliel hate?

I just want Milhous to be spelled right. And S. is a cheap copout. Otherwise, they're really unexceptional or interesting, and I couldn't rank them.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

S. may be a cheap copout, but S is rather cool. See comment below.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

No "Ulysses?"

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

He changed it from Hiram Ulysses to Ulysses S.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but if it were my poll I would let it in on a technicality. I suppose it doesn't matter since it's pretty clearly not the worst middle name.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's Grant you're thinking of, not Truman. I was thinking Truman, and also thinking that it weirds me out to put a period after Truman's S because it was his entire middle name, not an initial.

I knew that because when my grandfather Americanized his name, he changed the Straarup to S and said, I am told, "If it was good enough for Harry Truman it is good enough for me."

[redbird]

This now has me assembling them into new and mostly implausible combinations as people's names: Hussein Walker Fitzgerald. Herbert Earl Jefferson (that one, I wouldn't be astounded to hear was an actual person's name). Rudolph Delano Clark. Alan Gamaliel Knox. Howard S. Quincy.

Or, "which of these are the first name of anyone you know?" I know an Alan (and an Allen or three) and a Howard and some Davids, and probably a Henry though I can't place any offhand. I am fairly sure I would remember if I knew a Rudolph (personally, I mean: "I voted against him a couple of times" doesn't count).