Following the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump on July 13th, users took to X (formerly Twitter) to ask why killers and assassins are always referred to by three names.
One user said: “Why do these assassins and killers always have three names like they’re somebody we should know?”
While another asked: “Genuine question: Do assassins actually often have three names or does the media just use their full name, including middle, but that’s not what they go by?”
There is a theory behind why this happens
While there are of course some infamous killers referred to by two names like Ted Bundy, assassins and killers tend to be referred to by three distinct names.
Some examples include Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F Kennedy, John Wilkes Booth who assassinated Abraham Lincoln and now Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot Donald Trump’s ear in an attempt to assassinate him.
According to Distractify: “Assassins and killers are often referred to by three names, and there’s a thory that using three names makes the wrongdoer more distinguishable from an innocent person who may share their first and last name.”
It could also be as simple as police reports, though. Typically, when murderers are being reported on, journalists will use police reports which tend to use the entire birth name.
However, Slate said: “There may be an abundance of three-named killers for other reasons. Would-be assassins might embellish their own names to sound more grandiose. (Middle names were a point of pride when they first became popular in the United States in the 19 century.)
“Or it could all be a kind of feedback loop: Modern villains want to emulate their role-models.”