Naming the Shameless

I have a piece published in Quadrant magazine this month, or rather, Tim Train has a review published in Quadrant. It's the name I use to sign off my rare pieces in print, though not the name I use here in the blogosphere.

The piece is a review of John Hyde Page's book The Education of a Young Liberal.

Maybe to make my name sound really impressive, and my authorial identity sound suitably authoritative, I should start using a triple-barrel name, like Msrs Hyde Page, above. Unfortunately, Tim Huw Train doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Huw? It sounds like the noise a drunken Welsh owl would make.

Alternatively, I guess I could get a few more middle-names, and I could end up like one of those authors without a last name preceded by several initials. C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, W. B. Yeats ...

Strictly speaking, I could even have initials that initial nothing. The 'S' in the name of Harry S . Truman didn't actually stand for anything. (Or maybe it stood for itself - I haven't quite worked that one out yet.) The advantage of this sort of name is that you can't ever really write it in lower case, unless you're a rude bastard willing to flout the rules of English grammar.

What do you think? T.H.H.H.H.H. Train? Or maybe I'll vary the syllables around a bit. T.H.U.R.B.E.R. Train, T.H.A.C.K.E.R.A.Y. Train, T.H.O.R.E.A.U. Train, T.H.O.M.A.S.C.O.M.M.A.D.Y.L.A.N. Train ... Sure, it will be a bit difficult to remember at first, but I'm confident I'll get the hang of it sooner or later.

Anyway, if you want to check my piece out, Quadrant should be out in the newspaper stands in a few days time. It was also Quadrant's 50th birthday last night; so congratulations to them!