Michael

Leaving it until late in the day and unwilling to scour the streets in search of a stranger, I persuaded my brother to pester any of his online friends who I had never met.  After a couple of failed attempts an ex-colleague replied to the request.  His facebook profile photo was a large yellow triangular-shaped creature made of foam with a big nose and angry red eyebrows.  Here is an edited transcript of their conversation.

- Hi Dave
- My brother wants to know your middle name
- don't ask

- Um, right...
- Michael
- I do kinda want to ask though...

- thanks
- he's writing a blog
- that writes about someone's middle name everyday of 2012
- and he hadn't got anyone yet today...

- Wow, I'm honoured to be Jan 19
- My ex's birthday

(They go on to discuss why his surname had changed.  He had decided to change it back to his Dad's original family name.  It had been changed in the past to make it sound more English - although the name they had chosen was actually Irish.)

- my brother asks
- why michael?

- My parents liked it

- boring

- When I was born, the two most popular names were David and Michael
- My Hebrew name is (in English) Jacob Morderchai
- Which I think is after family members
- but not sure which
- Why not David?  No idea
- It *is* a Hebrew name after all
- Got a link to the blog?

I tried to do some research to find in what year David and Michael were the most popular names in the UK.  David was a consistent high hitter from 1934 when it came in at 5th place.  It was in 2nd by 1944 and 1st through the 1950s and '60s before falling back to 3rd in the '70s and '80s.  By 1995 it has fallen in vogue and could only manage a measly 30th place and has been falling ever since to a disappointing 64th today.  Michael also came in strongly in 1934 in 7th place.  It found it's way into the top five in 1944 and hovered around there through to 1994, when it too fell out of the top ten to 12th.  It's decline has not been as brutal as David's but has been steady.  It now finds itself at 53rd.

The results do not, unfortunately, give a conclusive answer to the year that today's middle name was born except that it is unlikely to have been within the last twenty-five years.  The two most popular boy's names in 2011 were Oliver and Jack which would have left my brother's ex-colleague with a very different first and middle name had he been born today.