Don't understand what Ms. Leary was indicating- no middle name= VA???? Having spent a considerable amount of time in NC records, I have found no more use of a middle name in the earliest NC records, than in VA, except, as Paul mentioned, the Germans in Western NC. E. Wallace wrote: In a lecture at a (1999, I believe) NGS conference, held in Richmond, VA, I heard Helen F.M.Leary, a noted genealogist of North Carolina, give a talk on how one could determine whether one's North Carolinian had Virginia roots. One of the clues was if the person had a middle name!!!!