Michael

The name derives from a Hebrew rhetorical question meaning 'who is like God?' It entered English usage by the Middle Ages through Norman introduction. American parents registered it in high volume starting in 1880, eventually making it the dominant boy's name of the twentieth century.

A Michael reads as a man around fifty years old who waits for a surname initial before turning around in a crowded hallway. The name sits evenly across baby boomers, Generation X, and millennials, spanning three decades of elementary school homerooms. It suggests parents who preferred an unassailable choice that required zero explanation to grandparents. In any medium-sized office, the name remains the primary reason middle initials were invented.