My former middle name followed Norwegian naming conventions (mother's maiden name) rather than American ones (typically a second given name.) This difference in usage has caused some inconveniences with travel documents, and also posed a minor security risk since my mother's maiden name is the preferred default password for an annoying number of places, such as banks and credit card issuers.

I took the perhaps drastic step of legally changing my name. As of today, I have Norwegian and US passports in hand with only a first name and last name. Perhaps overkill, but I shouldn't have to worry about middle name complications ever again.