the middle names project

lea clare [but it’s not a real middle name] doherty

I was born without a middle name. No big deal you’d think. But as I got older I began to feel envious of all the other schoolgirls practising cursive script on their extra long names. In comparison my name felt sparse. The name my parents bestowed upon me made me feel like I’d lost some of my Irish heritage (four names at least are the norm in the generation before). I viewed the lack of a middle name as a sort of weird parental identity theft.

I was raised as a Roman Catholic and at Confirmation we were asked to take a saint’s name to give us “spiritual strength”. No one really uses their confirmation name in real life, but I adopted Clare and when I was asked I’d give it as my middle name.

(FYI, St Clare is said to have lived a very mystical and spiritually powerful life. In her dying days, when she was unable to attend mass, God brought mass to her by displaying it like a movie on her wall. Which is why she is the patron saint of television. Cool eh?) 

Plus it was the 80s and my initials spelled out LCD.