3 Names That Spell Trouble

What’s in a name? Trouble, I tell ya.

Take Bill Clinton. He’s been known as President Bill Clinton for as long as we can remember. Then the impeachment proceedings come along and suddenly everyone--from Henry John Hyde to Thomas John Brokaw--is referring to him as “President William Jefferson Clinton.”

This is not good. History shows whenever the nickname is replaced by the little-used-given-name/never-used-middle-name combination, someone’s in trouble. Think back to your childhood.

At birth you were given the name, say, Michelle Anne Williams, but everyone calls you Shelly. Your mother, your father, sister, friends, teachers.

Then one day, while playing a rousing game of Let’s Hunt Down the Cat with your little friends in the living room (despite repeated parental warnings), a lamp goes crash.

From the next room, come the three words you dread more than naps: “Michelle Anne Williams!”

Trouble, I tell ya.