Middle Name Ramblings Trivia Quiz

Answer:

► Bob Willis. If you met him, you probably wouldn't have guessed that he was an elite sportsman. He was tall and ungainly. But Willis was a fast bowler who battled through injury to take over 300 test wickets for England and was one of the few bowlers to captain the England team. His finest hour as a player was probably the 8 wickets for 43 he took in the legendary 1981 Headingley Ashes test. After he retired, Willis became a respected commentator. When he was a teenager, Bob Willis's life changed on hearing the music of Bob Dylan. He became a lifelong fan and altered his name by deed poll to Robert George Dylan Willis. Dylan became the soundtrack to his life. Every chapter in Willis's autobiography was titled after a Dylan song. After a long illness he had "Positively 4th Street" playing on his death bed, and "It Ain't Dark Yet "was played at his funeral.
► Robert Zimmerman was in his late teens and performing folk music when he started calling himself Bob Dylan. He intended to call himself "Dillon" but used the different spelling after reading works by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Why change? In Dylan's words: "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free". He formalized the name Robert Dylan legally in 1962. Bob Dylan's incredible catalogue of songs such as "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Blowin' in the Wind" inspired generations of listeners, but the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 was a surprise to many, including the great man himself.
► Dylan Thomas. This Welsh poet was known for his radio play "Under Milk Wood", and poems such as "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" and "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night", as well as memoirs like "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog" and "A Child's Christmas in Wales". He was given the middle name Marlais after his great uncle, William Thomas, who was a bardic poet in the Welsh tradition under the name Gwilym Marles, as well as being a prominent figure in the development of Unitarianism in Wales.
► John Lennon was born in 1940 and given the middle name Winston after the then war-time UK Prime Minster Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was a highly popular and inspiring figurehead for the country. After the war he was garlanded with all sorts of awards and recognition, including for some reason the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. He was a member of the most famous band of all time, the Beatles, writing songs such as "Help!", "Come Together", and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". He married his second wife Yoko Ono in 1969 and added Ono as a middle name that year. He was not permitted to drop the "Winston", so became John Winston Ono Lennon. Yoko Ono was a multi-faceted artist. In one of her performance art works, called "Cut Piece", she invited the audience to pick up a pair of scissors and cut pieces of her clothing off.
► Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight. When he started performing the songs he co-wrote with Bernie Taupin, he adopted the name Elton John, after two fellow musicians, Elton Dean and Long John Baldry. He also adopted the magnificent middle name of Hercules after the rag and bone merchants' horse in the BBC TV show "Steptoe and Son". Elton John released a series of classic songs including "Tiny Dancer", "Your Song", and "Philadelphia Freedom".
► Jerome K. Jerome was an English author best known for his classic comic novel "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)", and his humorous essays "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow". He was named Jerome Clapp Jerome after his father. When he was born, his family was hosting a distinguished Hungarian general called Gyorgi Klapka, and Jerome later adopted the general's surname as his middle name. Klapka was a military hero and leader in the Hungarian War of Independence, who was exiled at the time of Jerome's birth.
► Robert Wadlow was the tallest recorded person in history, at a height of over 8 ft 11in (2.72m). He was born in Illinois in 1918 and named after the US General John Joseph Pershing who led the U. S. forces in World War I.
► Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the USA. He served less than two and a half years because of his sudden death due to a heart attack. After his death a series of scandals that occurred under his presidency came to light, including the Teapot Dome bribery scandal. His middle name Gamaliel comes from the Bible. Gamaliel the Elder was a Jewish Pharisee and teacher who defended the apostles of Jesus. The name means "God is my reward" in Hebrew.
► James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish writer whose works included "Ulysses", "Finnegans Wake", and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". Augustine was the surname of a family member, as well as the name of two leading church members - the theologian Augustine of Hippo, and the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Aloysius was added by Joyce on his confirmation, to honour Aloysius Gonzaga, the Jesuit and saint.
► Ulysses S. Grant was originally called Hiram Ulysses Grant. He dropped the first name and was went by Ulysses early in life. He acquired the middle initial due to a mix-up. Thomas Hamer, a congressman, was asked by Grant's father to nominate him for the prestigious West Point military academy. Hamer mistakenly registered him as U. S. Grant. Grant retained the initial and went on to a stellar military career, leading the Union Army in the American Civil War, and became the 18th president in 1869.
► Harry S. Truman was born in Missouri and given the S. middle initial as a two for one honoring of his grandfathers, Solomon Young and Anderson Shipp Truman. Uniquely for a U. S, president, Truman ran a haberdasher's store after serving in World War I. He became president in 1945.