Can I have a middle name?

When my administrating officer called me urgently one morning, telling me I had forgotten to provide them with a very important piece of information, I did have some mild stress reaction for a minute there, thinking of the enormous amount of paperwork that I would have to fill out all over again. But then, when I discovered that this important piece of information was actually my middle name, I sighed with relief and even laughed for a few moments, realizing he was not joking. ״I don't have one" I said, smiling to myself. "what do you mean?!" he asked, thinking that I was actually joking. "I don't have a middle name" I said again. ״Oh, I mean the name that comes before your last name, some people use only the first letter but I actually need the full name" he said slowly, in a serious voice, making sure I understand. "Yes, I know what a middle name is, I just don't have one, my parents had never given me one, I only have a first name and a last name" I exclaimed. "Strange, how come?" he asked with an empathic voice.
So I started explaining how having more than one name in Israel can be a drag sometimes, how it is usually used in its full spelling and not only as the first initial, leaving almost no space for your last name on your ID document, and how the majority of people (as strange as it may sound in the U.S) are given only one name, and many times a pretty short one. That also lead early on to having a pretty short and simple signature, unlike the typical fancy American signature. Well, we ended up the conversation with him feeling a little sorry for me, for not being given a middle name and with me feeling pretty unique about my one short name (and signature). But what had also seemed like a good idea 8 years ago when my daughter was born and later on when my son was born, when my husband and I decided to give each of them only a first name, seem like a big puzzle for them now. My daughter asks occasionally whether she can add a middle name to herself, just because all of her friends have it and it makes their names sound more impressive... "Well, sure" I answer "when you are 18" hoping that by the time she gets there she will learn to appreciate it. And my son, he doesn't even ask, he just picked a middle name that seemed cool enough for him and uses it whenever he finds fit.