To think middle names are pointless

Agreed. No-one in my family has a middle name. My DH never had one. I had a middle name that was made fun of all through my childhood, so when I changed my name to my married name I also got rid of my middle name.

Our Two DC have not been given a middle name.

I find they are either pointless, or people are mildly to extremely embarrassed by them.

I actually quite like them - children are given their names before they’re old enough to have an opinion on them, and if they can’t stand their names when they’re older, at least with a middle name they have an option of something else they can use.

Yes they do.

I had been known that 'never events' have happened in medical settings where the wrong patient has had the wrong medical procedure. A middle name makes it less likely to happen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-10683833

A middle name can distinguish you from people with the same.name.. if you are Mary Smith you might.be glad of being named Mary Charleston Smith because officialdom won't confuse you with all the other Mary Smiths.in their records.

I think middle names are a great cultural tradition. I had loads of fun picking the right ones for my four. Surely anything that enhances a person's sense of individuality/connects them to ancestors or place of birth/ gives them a sense of belonging etc has to be a good thing.
Don't middle names also add another layer of safeguarding on things like medical records etc?

Some great examples here on how middle names can be the difference between uniquely identifying one person from another. I’m from the generation of middle names Jane (my middle name) and Anne.

Gosh that's terrifying.

Oh this made me laugh - My DD has two middle names - and only gets the full title when I am really pissed off.

Three of us in our family have the same first initial so our middle initials are very useful for mail

For our kids we chose fairly normal first names that could be easily shortened and more unusual middle names so they'd have a bit of a choice about how they presented without having to actually change their names. They both like their middle names and have had some personalised stuff include their middle names. Their middle names are both characters from myth and legend and my kids enjoy that connection, have the books and other related paraphernalia. It's been fun for them and, to a very minor extent, enriching. One teen now goes by her middle name. And the other used it as a stage/pen name for school drama (she thinks it sounds more like an actress's name than her first name does!).

OTOH I have never used my middle name and find it a bit of a nuisance!

My mother didn't have a middle name (and had a short first name you couldn't shorten). Once, when I talked with her about it she said it had never been an issue and my brother and I only had middle names because my dad wanted them, but neither name has much connection or thought behind it (other than - that scans well).

So my conclusion is - they aren't necessarily pointless, but there's not much point in throwing one in just because you think you ought to and there's nothing wrong with not using one.

They aren't pointless.

They are exceptionally useful for identifying the difference between John Taylor and John Taylor when doing family history.

I do family history. They are a brilliant invention.

We use people’s initials to quickly identify their work and emails and all sorts. Very useful to have a middle initial at my workplace!
Middle names also save my family tree from quite a bit of confusion as by the time you go back 100-150 years they all seem to have the same handful of first names and are differentiated mostly by their middle names (usually their mothers maiden name, handily).
All my kids have meaningful middle names, not sure I see the point of the “does Gracie Lou or Gracie Sue sound better?” type posts as day to day nobody is using the whole name, but whatever floats your boat.

I don't have a middle name and have a very common first name. Which was fine until I married and took a very common surname. Think John Smith. I'd have liked someone to have bothered more tbh.

If you have a fairly common first and last name an unusual middle name differentiates you

I share a middle name with my great grandmother, my nana, my mum and now my eldest daughter. I only have one middle name but she has two - the one from my side and her paternal grandmother’s middle name.

My youngest has two middle names too. One is her dads favourite name which I wasn’t keen on so we didn’t use as a first name, and another family name which she shares with cousins etc.

I love all the connections their names represent.

This. My middle name is from my auntie & my son's middle name is a family tradition passed down several generations.

My children and husband don't have surnames - Icelandic and hardly anyone has a surname here. We tend to use middle names to distinguish between two people with the same first name much more than we use last names.

My son has the same name as another boy in his year and they are known as Tómas Orri and Tómas Kári (not real names), not Tómas Jónsson and Tómas Helgason.

In a bigger country, middle names give you the chance to distinguish between people with the same first name and same surname - it's not that uncommon even if your name isn't Mary Smith.

My granny was always known by her middle name.
In fact, quite a few of my family have chosen to use middle names because historically lots of them had the same first names, so middle ones were easier.
I hate my middle name marginally more than I do my first name, so I haven't changed!

I’ve never used mine.

But my boy always states his full name!

You don’t have to pick one of you don’t want to! We have two in my family. I think it’s nice but it’s really not a big deal if you can’t decided - it’s not a requirement!

My uncle HATES his first name only ever goes by his middle name

My dad is a twin and doesn't have a middle name because his brother got it 😂

I've no clue why my mum doesn't have a middle name but my sister and I do

When they go to prep school and you have their initials stencilled on the tuck box, fewer than four doesn’t really look right.

Yep a friend has a common name say John Brown, there is a John Brown on the no fly list to the US so he often gets flagged and interrogated - ESTAs need middle names often for this reason (not always my parents have an unusual surname so are fine)
with the EU implementing a similar scheme

it is a useful piece of identifying info

Christ, that’s depressing. I’m so sorry.

They’re good for identity purposes, such as the time my DH was arrested at a traffic stop in the USA as he had the same first name and surname as a fugitive police were looking for. After taking him to the station, and seeing his middle name in his passport they had a oh shit we arrested the wrong guy moment and released him.