posted
Middle names fell into disuse after the great computer storage crisis of 2742, not unlike our own much-feared Y2K. I don't profess to understand all the technical details, but some dominant operating system at the time was sloppily-enough written that, with an expanding galactic population, they were running out of storage space for recording people's names (and had unmentionably frightful problems with area codes, I might mention).
Therefore, most planets passed a law (this was pre-U.P. but there was some form of economic cooperation) that all children born after 2743 would not have middle names recorded. You could give junior as many names as you wanted (important for lingerign vestiges of royalty) but they wouldn't be official. Most people didn't bother with middle names after that, although you always have a few eccentrics. Hence Eryk Davis. As for Rene Jacques, he forgot to drop the second name when he came from wherever he came in the post-boot.
posted
They actually had their own separate system, something about"binary" that they didn't accept. Why they don't have middle names is due to the objection of the word "middle" as applied to people. Nobody wants to be the middle triplet, or sit in the middle, etc. - so instead, all their first names have three syllables.
Here again, you have the occasional crackpot who wants to be different - but we know where that gets you on Cargg. It gets you off Cargg, if you're lucky.
Most comic book characters don't have middle names as a general rule. It's just one more detail to keep track of, probably. Does Clark Kent have middle name, or Bruce Wayne?
For that matter, most comic book names are very easy to remember and rather generic, U.S. sounding. Barry Allen ... Hal Jordan ... Steve Rogers ... Tony Stark ... Peter Parker. You don't find many Steinhauers or Knauteruds in comics. Guess creators worry that if fans can't pronounce 'em, they won't want to read about 'em.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic | Subscribe To Topic
