Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

How did you pick your child's middle name?

116 replies

bb2605 · 11/02/2020 15:11

I'm a little uncertain about how to choose a middle name for our baby due this summer.
I love the name Violet which happens to be the name of one of our grandmothers but I worry (and I'm aware this is likely not going to happen at all but hello pregnancy anxiety Blush ) that family members may be secretly offended if we use a family name from the other side of the family and not their side (call me ridiculous please but my mum can be slightly weird when it comes to stuff like this!!)
We giving our baby 2 middle names but the two we like don't really go together at all - they sound weird in either order.
Alternatively we could just go for a name we like that is not a family name but I think it's quite nice for a middle name to have some meaning to it.
Thoughts? Suggestions? How did you choose a middle name for your children? Is it odd to give 2 middle names?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
ImportantWater · 11/02/2020 16:39

DS1 has DH's dad's middle name
DS2 has my dad's middle name.
Simples.

Mamabear88 · 11/02/2020 16:37

My DD has a Polish middle name as her Grandma (her dad's mum) is Polish. It isn't a family name, we both just liked it but we wanted to honour her heritage (didn't use it as a first name due to people not being able to spell / pronounce it correctly).

OhWellThatsJustGreat · 11/02/2020 16:25

Ds has both my dad and fil name as his middle name (they have the same name)

We won't be doing the same if next DC is a girl as our dms names don't 'go' together very well.

Jeleste · 11/02/2020 16:25

I think youre over thinking it. We only gave one DC a middle name to honor one of my grandparents. Other DC doesnt even have a middle name because we couldnt find one that we actually wanted to honor that also went well with his first name.
Nobody is upset about it. At least not openly :)
Although MIL was the first to put DC 1 first name out there and we actually fell in love with it, so technically his family named one child and the other has a middle name from my family.

20viona · 11/02/2020 16:23

My daughters middle name is violet, just liked the way it sounded with her first and surnames. Don't overthink it, but I wouldn't do the two middle names.

CocoLoco87 · 11/02/2020 16:22

All my 3 DC have 2 middle names. Only one of those names is after a grandparent on my side of the family. No one has ever said this isn't fair to DH's side etc. The other names we chose are names with nice meanings, 'wished for child' etc.

Duvetdweller · 11/02/2020 16:21

Mine don’t have middle names - it’s not compulsory if you can’t think of one

MissDollyMix · 11/02/2020 16:18

DH picked one uncontested (as long as it 'went' with the other names) and I picked one (with the same criteria). I guess we could have vetoed if it was a name we really hated. For DS middle name I picked the name of my grandfather, I guess DH could have also used the name of his grandfather but he decided to just go with his favourite boys name. He also used his favourite girls name for DD and I did the same as there weren't any family names I wanted to use. For us it was a chance to use some of the more slightly 'out there' or trendy names that we didn't have the courage to saddle our children with as first names.

Andsbk · 11/02/2020 16:16

My kids don't have a middle name...🙄

Original poster
bb2605 · 11/02/2020 16:12

@PrincessHoneysuckle yes boys names are a lot easier I find! We have two middle names picked out for a boy which are my grandfather's name/my dad's middle name and my DHs father's name - both very traditional like yours. They go together well too. Girls are another story!

OP posts:
PrincessHoneysuckle · 11/02/2020 16:08

@bb2605 ds middle names are Richard John so fairly traditional names which go with our surname.

Original poster
bb2605 · 11/02/2020 16:04

@whatsyourflava it's not that I don't like the name itself spelled like that it's that I think it looks weird next to the other names we're thinking of. For instance once of the names we like is Effie and I think Effie Alice looks a bit strange whereas Effie Alys looks more pretty. But yeah it could just come across as pretentious and I know Alys is an actual Welsh name so it's actually a different name altogether.

OP posts:
TeapotCollection · 11/02/2020 16:04

Why bother if there isn’t a name that’s important to you, middle names don’t serve any purpose

mylittleavalon · 11/02/2020 16:03

My dd middle name is Avalon, which means King Arthur's resting place, this I because my husband's grandad was called Arthur and died two weeks before she was born. We wanted to honour him and apart from Arthuretta couldn't find a female equivalent for Arthur until we found that!!

Whatsyourflava · 11/02/2020 16:01

Alice is such a beautiful classic name PLEASE don’t change the spelling to Alyse

AHorseCalledCroc · 11/02/2020 15:59

DS1 - DH's name (also his DF's name but that wasn't a trend we'd be continuing!)

DS2 - DH's middle name. My maiden name doesn't really work as a middle name, it would just sound like he had 2 surnames, and my DF's name sounded ridiculous with the first name we'd chosen.

Willow4987 · 11/02/2020 15:56

DS1 has DH grandfathers name who sadly passed away before he was born

DS2 will have 2 middle names which are our fathers

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 11/02/2020 15:56

Ds1 has my brothers name, ds 2 doesn't have a middle name. We couldn't think of one.

golddustwomen · 11/02/2020 15:56

My dd has my moms name.
Ds my brothers.
Oh wasn't overly keen on my brothers name being used but our son will have his dads last name for life so he let me have the middle!

OfftoPenscome · 11/02/2020 15:55

Typo - ds 1 named after our 2 deceased grandfathers

OfftoPenscome · 11/02/2020 15:54

Our boys have 2 middle names.

Ds 1 - named after both our deceased - so one from each side

Ds 2 - named after an uncle and given the traditional family middle name (4th generation and counting)

TheGirlFromStoryville · 11/02/2020 15:51

My dd wasn't going to have a middle name, all the way up to the appointment with the Registrar for her birth certificate. She asked if we were sure we didn't want one and I rather randomly thought of my best friend's DM Betty, so picked Elizabeth as dds middle name.

DS was named after both his grandfathers,for his first and middle name.

happymummy12345 · 11/02/2020 15:46

Should add we asked them both if they'd mind that and both said no and felt honoured that we'd name our child or children after them

happymummy12345 · 11/02/2020 15:44

We decided to go for the first name of our closest friends. So dh's friends name for our 1st boy, my friends name for our 1st girl.

Original poster
bb2605 · 11/02/2020 15:41

@paddingtonbearsmarmalade oooh that's a good point. Just a shame the one I love is on DHs side of the family already haha

OP posts: