First name means the first part of the name. The BURGER part of BURGER KING.

As people, we have a given name and a family name, and often a second given name, as a homage to a relative.

Yet, they ask for a first name and a last name and a middle name or middle initial.

I think this means the first part of the name, the last part of the name, and the middle initial, which is the middle part of the name.

The name is JOHN T SMITH. It is the name of a persona/franchise such as BURGER KING.

For the name BURGER KING, the first part of the name is BURGER and the last part is KING.

Or more succinctly BURGER KING’s first name is BURGER and the last name is KING. BURGER KING does not have a middle initial or a middle name.

For the name/persona/franchise JOHN T SMITH. The first part of the name is JOHN. The last part of the name is SMITH and the middle part of the name is T.

That’s the only way it makes sense to say first/last/middle.

I do not have a name. I have a given name and a family name, but I do not have just a ‘name’. Ships have names.

It’s a subtle but critical difference.

——————————-

When people ask for my name, I either say, “Well my given name is ______” or I might say, “I’m called _______.”

New to the site?

  1. Review these slides
  2. Read this, 
  3. review this diagram of US vs USofA,
  4. read these six PDFs,
  5. watch Richard McDonald's seminar intro
  6. learn to speak like a simple man
  7. If this site ever goes down, the archive is on the wayback machine.

2 comments on “First name means the first part of the name. The BURGER part of BURGER KING.

    1. This post is definitely odd only because it’s strange when a man mistakenly acts as the agent of a business/franchise, rather than as a man, who has a given name and a family name.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.