Addison Graves Wilson should be shown the respect of calling him by his legal name. Forget that "Joe" stuff. His given name should be good enough for him and we owe him the respect of not diminishing him in any way by calling him anything else.

    Skidmore, Democratic Underground            

I am not the first to notice this, I've seen it over at Daily Kos, and even the great Andrew Sullivan has twittered about this.

So Joe, I mean Addison, why reject your name?  Your parents, no doubt kind folk, gave it to you, and buried in it is your proud family tradition.  You cannot hate the name, after all you named your second son Addison Graves Wilson, Jr.  Which means we need to give you your full due, not merely Addison Graves Wilson, but Addison Graves Wilson, Senior.  None of your other sons got plebian names either: nary a Joe, Tom, Dick, Stan, or Harry among them.  Stand up for your social class, Addison Graves Wilson,SENIOR!!.

Take your first name.  It means Adam's son.  Creationists would love that.  You might have to footnote it a few times, but eventually they would catch on.  And don't fret that Addison was only 974th favorite name for boys in the 1930-1940 decade, or that it fell of the chart entirely in the decade in which you were born.  Exclusivity suits you-you worked for Strom Thurman and he liked exclusivity--outside the bedroom at least.

    Addison, which means  'Son of Adam', is one of the surnames which has been enthusiastically taken up in the current trend to find 'unique' names for baby girls. It has been climbing the American charts since 1994 and in 2006 was the 27th most popular name for girls in the US.

    Although Addison, today, is given as a name to both genders, it isn't a legitimate unisex name as it's meaning is masculine.

    Addison is the name of many cities throughout North America. It is also the name of a serious adrenal condition; John F. Kennedy suffered from Addison's disease, and it is believed that Jane Austen may have died from it. A female character in the TV drama "Grey's Anatomy" is named Addison. Addison was also the name of a character in the horror movie "Saw II.

Addison is growing in favor, it reappeared in 1970 as 828th most popular, and, lo and behold, as your career has advanced so has the popularity of the name.  I will leave the statisticians to see if there's some sort of correlation.  

I will grant you that there are some minor political drawbacks campaigning as Addison: There's the gender bending thing, for one, which might work in San Francisco but could be a drawback in South Carolina.  Right wingers might have a problem electing someone named after JFK's kidney condition. 

And I have to concede that "Graves" isn't much help-it reminds people of mortality and might get them thinking of death panels and things like that.  Campaigning as Graves would be a difficult "undertaking".  (sorry couldn't resist).

Nonetheless, It's your name.  Be Proud of It.  Don't let people accuse you of running away from your name as they did Barack HUSSEIN Obama who took the nickname of Barry in his teen years.  No fake man of the people, you.  And consider this.  It could have been far worse.  Daddy and Mommy could have named you Sue-though Susan would be more appropriate for your social station.