From an editorial in the Warren (RI) Gazette, 20 December 1902, regarding the proper use of nomenclature.  After dealing with the proper way to address married women and divorced women, it went on to rant:   “Any of the aforesaid violations of good taste are mild, however, in comparison with the abominable custom which prevails in some New England schools of trying to eliminate the middle name of the pupil altogether.  Of late it has become fashionable in some public schools (fortunately not in our own) to drop this important part of the name, and the school registers contain only the Christian and surname of the pupils.  There is a certain degree of impertinence in the endeavor to vary the name from that which the parent has conferred, but the most serious mistake lies in the confusion which such a practice will entail upon those who make genealogical research a few generations hence.  A succession of John Smiths without the relieving middle initial will perplex and confound the most careful and expert genealogist and this in itself is sufficient to condemn the abominable practice.”   (Now if only other people throughout the ages had been so thoughtful...) Wendy Baker