What is Carl Sagan's middle name?

Carl Sagan’s middle name was Edward. His full name was Carl Edward Sagan, a name recorded in biographical accounts of the astronomer and science communicator.

Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934 and later studied physics at the University of Chicago. His broad scientific interests included astronomy, planetary atmospheres, the origins of life, and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence. The name Carl Edward Sagan became familiar worldwide through his books and the television series Cosmos.

The middle name is easy to overlook because Sagan was almost always known simply as Carl Sagan in popular writing. It also sometimes gets confused with names associated with people close to him. His first wife was biologist Lynn Margulis, while his later wife and creative collaborator was writer Ann Druyan.

Sagan’s name also appears in scientific and institutional records with professional titles such as astronomer, astrophysicist, and planetary scientist. Those descriptions refer to his work, not additional parts of his name.