Presidents have more than their share of intriguing middle names. Two of them -- Ronald Wilson Reagan and William Jefferson Clinton -- match the last names of two of their predecessors.

Ulysses S. Grant came into this world as Hiram Ulysses Grant. When his name was mistakenly entered on the West Point register as Ulysses S. Grant, he eagerly embraced the error because he detested the initials H. U. G. and loved having the initials U.S., as in United States and Uncle Sam.

Less pyrotechnically, Grover was originally the middle name of Stephen Grover Cleveland, Woodrow the middle name of Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Calvin the middle name of John Calvin Coolidge, and Dwight the middle name of David Dwight Eisenhower.

And then theres Harry S. Truman or is it Harry S Truman, without the period? Truman initiated this punctuation controversy in 1962, when told reporters that the S wasnt an initial for a particular name. Rather, the S was a compromise between the names of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young, making the letter a kind of embracive middle name.

But Truman himself usually placed a period after the S, and the most authoritative style manuals recommend its use in the interest of consistency.

Using each middle name listed, identify the full name of each American president:

1.Abram

2.Alan

3.Baines

4.Birchard

5.Clark

6.Delano

7.Earl

8.Fitzgerald

9. Gamaliel

10. Henry

11. Herbert Walker

12. Howard

13. Knox

14.Milhous

15. Quincy

16. Walker

Answers:

1. James Abram Garfield 2. Chester Alan Arthur 3. Lyndon Baines Johnson 4. Rutherford Birchard Hayes 5. Herbert Clark Hoover 6. Franklin Delano Roosevelt 7. James Earl Carter 8. John Fitzgerald Kennedy9. Warren Gamaliel Harding 10. William Henry Harrison 11. George Herbert Walker Bush 12. William Howard Taft 13. James Knox Polk 14. Richard Milhous Nixon 15. John Quincy Adams 16. George Walker Bush

When the Civil War ended, Abraham Lincoln, on April 13, 1865, gave orders to stop the draft of soldiers. The following day he made his fatal visit to Ford's Theater to see Our American Cousin. At one point in the play the heroine, reclining on a garden seat, calls for a shawl to protect her from the draft. The actor Edward Southern, to whom the request was addressed, replied on this occasion with this impromptu line: You are mistaken, Miss Mary. The draft has already been stopped by order of the president! Lincoln joined in the audience appreciation of this remark with what was to be his last laugh.

On that fatal night, Lincoln did not want to go to the theater. He had seen Our American Cousin once before and was not eager to see it again. But Mary Todd Lincoln had promised his presence, so he attended. As he left, he said, Good-bye, Crook. This puzzled the guard. Ordinarily the president said, Good night.

Ever since the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, historians have pointed out a number of striking similarities between Kennedys life and death and those of Abraham Lincoln. You be the judge as to whether these convergences are significant or mere coincidences:

Lincoln was elected to the House of Representatives in 1846, Kennedy in 1946. Lincoln failed to win the vice presidential nomination in 1856, Kennedy in 1956. Lincoln was elected to the presidency in 1860, Kennedy in 1960. Lincoln defeated Stephen Douglas, born in 1813; Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon, born in 1913. Neither victor received 50% of the popular vote. Both presidents lost sons during their presidencies: Willie Lincoln succumbed to typhoid fever, and Patrick Kennedy was stillborn.

The last names of both presidents are each composed of seven letters. Both presidents had vice presidents named Johnson, both older than their presidents. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808, Lyndon Johnson in 1908. Andrew Johnson served in the House of Representatives in 1847, Lyndon Johnson in 1947. Both were sitting senators when they became vice president. The first and last names of both vice presidents total an unlucky thirteen letters. Neither Johnson was elected to a second presidential term.

Lincoln and Kennedy repeatedly spoke of having vivid dreams of assassination attempts. (In a dream, Lincoln heard weeping and wailing over the death of the President. He entered a room a viewed a coffin that contained his own body.) Each was warned by advisers not to attend the fatal event. Both assassins -- John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were known by three names totaling fifteen letters.

Lincoln was assassinated in Fords Theater, Kennedy in a Ford automobile a Lincoln. Each was shot in the back of the head, each with his wife nearby. Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and was captured in a barn; Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was arrested at a theater. Both presidents were assassinated on a Friday. Neither assassin lived to stand trial.

Historian Henry Adams, the grandson and great-grandson of presidents, wrote that the American president resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek. The voyages that our American presidents have steered on the ship of state are some of the brightest adventures that any nation has experienced since the dawn of civilization.

When George Washington became president in 1789, other national leaders included the king of France, the czarina of Russia, the emperor of China, and the shogun of Japan. Today, no king rules France, no czar rules Russia, no emperor rules China, and no shogun rules Japan. But the office of president of the United States endures.

The United States invented the idea of a president serving as head of state. When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become president; Im beginning to believe it, quipped Clarence Darrow. Very few nations have a governmental system that allows anyone to become the leader of the country, in this case, the most powerful in the world. Our presidents have been highly educated and barely schooled: Woodrow Wilson earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University, while Andrew Johnson never attended school but was trained as a garment maker and wore only suits that he himself had custom tailored.

Our presidents have been filthy rich and dirt poor, generals and civilians, professional politicians and utter amateurs, sober as a judge and drunk as a skunk, eloquent and barely articulate, handsome and plug-ugly. In the past century alone, the White House has been occupied by the son of a Presbyterian minister, a schoolteacher, a peanut farmer, a failed haberdasher, a former actor, and the son of a failed California lemon rancher.

Virginia, Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts have furnished most of our chief executives, but such widely scattered states as Vermont, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Michigan, and California have also sent native sons to the White House.

The framers of the Constitution could not have envisioned the power that the president now holds to influence world and domestic affairs. Our forefathers and foremothers could not have dreamt that presidents would be the subjects and objects of so much intense interest in their philosophies, opinions, policies and personal lives. During this most passionate and protracted presidential campaign in American history, I am pleased to share with you the feats, fates, families, foibles and firsts of our American presidents.

Check back next week for more presidential trivia from Richard Lederer.

Richard Lederer is the author of more than 3,000 books and articles about language and humor, including his best-selling Anguished English series. He was a founding co-host of A Way with Words on KPBS Radio. Lederer will be talking about his newest work, Presidential Trivia, at a KPBS Lecture Series event on Wednesday, September 26.