The Evening Post and Mail

The Evening Post and Mail

Share this post

The Evening Post and Mail
The Evening Post and Mail
Make your own name
User's avatar
Discover more from The Evening Post and Mail
The digital evening newspaper editorial of the Great Midwest. Committed to being thought-provoking, not mindlessly provocative.
Already have an account? Sign in

Make your own name

On Hollywood habits, Poor Richard, and what it takes to succeed without the family name

Brian Gongol's avatar
Brian Gongol
Jun 08, 2025

Share this post

The Evening Post and Mail
The Evening Post and Mail
Make your own name
Share

In pursuit of her cinematic career, Malia Obama did something unusual: She omitted her famous last name from the credits of a film. It isn't as though people couldn't have worked out her connection to the project, but the names cited in credits have always mattered a great deal.

â–  Benjamin Franklin once advised, "'Tis a shame that your family is an honor to you! You ought to be an honor to your family." The language may seem quaint, but the sentiment is as fresh as ever.

Thanks for reading The Evening Post and Mail! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

â–  We don't count on family names quite as much as our ancestors probably did: In the days before credit ratings, for instance, your parents' creditworthiness with the local store probably stood in quite a lot for your own. Today, we have Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

â–  Notwithstanding that modernization, it should still be each person's individual goal to leave their family name better than it was bestowed on them. "Better" doesn't have to mean "more famous" or "more accomplished". It really only has to mean that a person put more into the world than they took out.

â–  Being the young child of a President has taxed more than a few of the people who have grown up inside the White House, so it wouldn't have been a travesty for Malia Obama to have used her birth name in the movie credits; she could make a defensible case that what she lost in privacy and family time was owed back to her with a gentle head start toward notoriety. But it's more honorable that she avoided the recognition.

Thanks for reading The Evening Post and Mail! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Share this post

The Evening Post and Mail
The Evening Post and Mail
Make your own name
Share

Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Expand the House
On Calvin Coolidge, orderly debate, and the need to expand the House in order to dilute the power of the cranks
Jan 9, 2023 â€¢ 
Brian Gongol
2

Share this post

The Evening Post and Mail
The Evening Post and Mail
Expand the House
Load balancing our cities
On macroeconomic forces, the original EPCOT vision, and what to do with America's fastest-shrinking counties
Apr 11, 2023 â€¢ 
Brian Gongol

Share this post

The Evening Post and Mail
The Evening Post and Mail
Load balancing our cities
Art is better than cigarettes
On $5 slots in Vegas, the library in Sheboygan, and vending machines for high culture
Apr 28, 2023 â€¢ 
Brian Gongol
2

Share this post

The Evening Post and Mail
The Evening Post and Mail
Art is better than cigarettes

Ready for more?

© 2025 Brian Gongol
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Create your profile

User's avatar

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.