What's in a middle name?

So I went about getting my new North Carolina driver's license. (This was after getting new NC insurance and before getting a NC license plates. Fortunately contract work affords me some scheduling flexibility so I could put this off until my workload had significantly decreased.) Lo and behold, my Massachusetts driver's license didn't have my middle name on it, just an initial. Same story with my Social Security card. Presumably my passport does, but it's at the bottom of an unknown box as a result of two moves. I had to find a notary public, which ended up being my bank. (Not even they knew my middle name.) And had them notarize a form in which I attested to my middle name. As Sharon said "for pity's sake." I could've given them any middle name and it still would've worked. But I had to spend an hour combusting gasoline nonetheless. Anyway, more of my move is now complete.