Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he’s really in trouble. — Dennis Frakes

Ah, middle names: those seldom uttered but much anguished upon appendages of personal appellation. Pride of our parents, mirth of our peers, bane of our preparatory schoolyard years.

Have you ever wondered where our middle names come from? I did, and I discovered there are some historical and social factors that commonly influence our choices. What follows is a humours look at the Seven Species of middle place monikers. Which one do you most identify with?

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According to popular theory, each person on the planet is connected to every other person through a chain of no more than six personal acquaintances. Six degrees of separation between you and Kevin Bacon, Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa and Natalie Portman. A compelling idea.

Just like people, names are also connected in a variety of fascinating ways. The goal of the Brainstormer has always been to join the dots, providing a rich visual web of name associations. 

Now, we’re pleased to announce we’re taking the creative association to a new level. Starting today, registered users can design their own creative name themes and share them with the world through the Brainstormer.

What’s a name theme? you might ask…

A theme is simply a group of names that share a common thread of some sort. The thread could be anything really. It might be stylistic in nature (Suave, Sexy). It might be a list of historical or cultural references (Disney Characters, English Queens, Renaissance Giants). It could be abstract or genre related; or it might just be a list of personal significance. Themes are limited only by your imagination, so have fun and be creative.

You can create as many themes as you want for your own personal reference, or share them with the whole world. Publicly shared themes appear as associations in the name graph and help build a richer web of associations that anybody can use when brainstorming name ideas.

An example…

Thomas (Jefferson) was a President; like George (Washington), who had a namesake in The Beatles (Harrison) with Paul (McCartney) who was also a Saint (Paul), like Francis…

Getting started

It’s easy to create a theme, but you will need to be signed in first: another good reason to create an account on the Brainstormer (it’s totally free to do so). Once you’ve signed in, just click on My Themes and we will walk you through it.

And let us know about the themes you are creating. We will feature the best ones on the blog each week. We’re keen to see what people do with this new tool.

Ah, They grow up so fast! As you may by now have noticed, we’ve left the proverbial WordPress.com nest and moved over onto our own self-hosted environment. We’re excited about the move as it will allows us a greater degree of flexibility in developing the site and closer integration between the site and the Brainstormer.

Apologies to everyone who experienced difficulties accessing the site over the past several hours. Various links were broken during the move which caused some disruption to the Brainstormer. Normal services have now resumed.

URL forwarding from the WordPress.com should now be in effect though we recommend you still update your bookmarks accordingly as the old URL will eventually become inactive.

I thought this would also be a good opportunity to update our look and add a little more pizzazz to the place. Say hello to Gossip City by Design Disease. Shazam!

Last month we asked our readers to vote on a number of features they would like to see added to the Brainstormer application. Today we are pleased to announce the first of these additions, favourites, is now available to our users.

A quick how-to

To add a name to your favourites you simply click the little heart button that accompanies each one. You can jump back to your favourites list at any time and use it as a jumping off point for more brainstorming. Remember, you need to sign in to save your favourites for your next visit.

Other improvements

We’ve also added several other improvements including help messages and improved support for different screen resolutions.

The future

We’ve been busy laying the groundwork for lots more exciting features to come. Registered users will soon be able to submit new names to the database and create their own custom name-themes to keep for their own reference or share with the world.

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please use the below comment form to let us know about your ideas, and watch this space for further developments.

What does Adolf Hitler have in common with Twisty Poi? Answer: Both are examples of proposed baby names blocked by the New Zealand register of Births Deaths and Marriages, a family court judge revealed.

These names, were among a list of inappropriate monikers cited by the justice in ruling that a nine-year-old girl would be put into court guardianship so her name could be changed from Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii. (The Guardian 2008). The judge expressed “profound concern” at the “very poor judgement” of the child’s parents, saying that the name made a fool of the child and “sets her up with a social disability and handicap”.

Other names that have been overruled by the New Zealand registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages include: Stallion, Yeah Detroit, Fish and Chips (twins?), Keenan Got Lucy (or is it Lucky?), Sex Fruit, Fat Boy, Satan and 4Real.

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