Do you think middle names are important?

I don't have a middle name and have always resented it. Tracing my family tree how I wish that my ancestors hadbeen a bit more imaginative in their naming so I could identify which of the 15 James Coopers or Frank Williams was which!

Saying that, there is little point in bestowing a "safe" middle name, like Louise or Jane in the 70s, and Grace, Rose or May now because chances are anyone else with the same first name will have the identical combination of first and middle.

Blimey! Was she an only child?

I always loved Clarissa Dickson Wright's name...

I don't have one and haven't missed not having one. I find it a bit strange when people always use more than one name like Carol Ann. Ellie May John Paul etc, and find hyphenated names puzzling unless you're French (Sarah-Jane, Ellie-Mae, Lexi-Rae etc). Names joined together just strike me as mistakes (Ellalouise, Sarahjane, Jonmartyn etc).

Each to their own I suppose.
How about when people have several names and surnames?
e.g. Evie-Kate Florence Sophia Madeleine Adams Wolseley-Snipe (I made it up but ykwim)

Jeez double post, I'm having problems with this today. Sorry!

Since I got married I'm the only person in the world with my name (according to Google). I have a classic English name with an Arabic surname. No problems in hospital for me now, except the fact they can't work out if I'm the brown woman or the white woman in the waiting room 😂

I used to be A. Smith, that always raised eyebrows at hotels I checked into with my boyfriend (who is now DH). If you're a Smith don't give your child A as a first initial.

Since I got married I'm the only person in the world with my name (according to Google). I have a classic English name with an Arabic surname. No problems in hospital for me now, except the fact they can't work out if I'm the brown woman or the white woman in the waiting room 😂

I used to be A. Smith, that always raised eyebrows at hotels I checked into with my boyfriend (who is now DH). If you're a Smith don't give your child A as a first initial.

My brother and sister both have Irish middle names. Dad's English and stepmum has lived here since forever so they wanted to give them English first names but they also wanted to recognise their Irish heritage. I think that's nice. My middle name is just a random name that my parents liked. It's nice enough but I never use it or give it much thought.

My mum always said that if you were ever in hospital about to have an op, a middle name would help differentiate you from another patient with the same name.
Maybe not an issue if you have a very unusual name but there are lots of Dave Smiths etc where it might be helpful.

Mind you, my mum then saddled me with the most boring and predictable combination of first and middle name which would distinguish me from precisely no one. I guarantee that if ever I was in a hospital with someone who had the same first name as me, there is a 50% chance they'd have the same middle name

Not important, but I wanted to give my children two middle names and I thought quite a bit about it. It's one of those things that's sort of pointless but also nice.

No. I don't know any of my friend's or colleagues middle names.

I'd only use one to honour somebody.

I quite like having three initials, and would always use LTC rather than just LC, but apart from that my middle name isn't particularly important. (In real life it isn't 'the', but it might as well be!)

No, because my idiot parents called me by my middle and I spent years explaining that my name was Y and not X.

I now use both as they are a well known combination and much more classic together. My father still refuses to use my chosen full name 24 years on.

My daughters do not have middle names. They can add one by deed poll if they wish when they are old enough.

I've always have found it very strange that my mom doesn't have one, I have 2, the kids have 1 and DH has 1. Saying that I don't think my MIL has one either. Maybe it's a generational thing?

Nope.

Middle names can be as Important to a child's identity as it is for a parent. My step dad father in law and niece are known by there middle names not the first name

I've never liked mine, but it's a really common and bland name (Anne) so it didn't seem that special iyswim, plus its my nan's name who I've never liked.

Both my kids have two middle names but they are more imaginative.

I thinkso, my mother tried to give us fairly normal middle names even though our first names weren't anything odd. My sister is Katie she hates it, hates that it's actually officially Kathleen Harriet now goes by her middle name.

Important to have? Not really, DH doesn't have one. But they can be important to the family- ds1's middle name is my db's name, which is also my df's middle name, ds2's is dh's grandfather's name, ds3's is the name of my great uncle and dh's cousin. And as pp have said, middle names can be useful where there are two or more people with the same first and surnames.
My own middle name is such a middle name. I know so many women of my generation with the same middle name!

Yes I think Scarlett is right, without a middle name there would potentially be more mix ups with people with the same name. That's one reason DS has his, so that there will be no one else with the same full name.
My second child is purely hypothetical at the moment but is already named and I'm spending a lot of time wondering what the middle should be. Nothing seems to work. Only occurred to me recently that they don't HAVE to have one. If they ever exist (s)he will though.

Yes thankfully I have a middle name which saved me from ever having to use my awful first name! Ended up changing it by deed poll

Yes, I think it's nice to have two names.

No, and I don't use mine.

But funnily enough, I never considered NOT giving one to my kids I think it's a cultural thing.

Not really, no. It was nice for us to be able to use a name we loved (and be a bit braver than we wanted to be with the first name) and they're nice for honouring relatives, etc. So I mean, I think they have significance to the parents, and sometimes can do to the person themselves as they grow up, but beyond that, to the rest of the world, they're meaningless and most often not even known.