The players, Marine Lieutenant Todd Desgrosseilliers and a middle-aged Sunni who offered only his first name, Ali.

NPR: U.S. Marines on the Job in Anbar Province

The guru who got a first-term U.S. senator with a middle name of Hussein elected president was pushed yesterday through a trap door into a much different world.

FORBES: Obama's Cold Heart Might Be A Good Thing

Doak Barnett was an American who seemed to have a touch of Scottish stubbornness: his unusual middle name, which he used as his first name, was a nod to his Scottish ancestry.

ECONOMIST: Arthur Doak Barnett

Arianda, who uses her middle name instead of her Ukrainian surname, Matijcio, first appeared onstage at age three, reciting part of a patriotic Ukrainian poem at a Ukrainian school hall in Passaic, New Jersey. (She grew up in Clifton.) She had spent the previous week learning the poem with her mother, Lesia, a painter who had studied at the School of Visual Arts with Robert De Niro, Sr.

NEWYORKER: The Natural