Middle names: Rose, Grace and May

James has got to be up there for a male middle name. I hear it all the time! Love it, but so so popular x

My girls middle names are popular now but were chosen as they were loved ones first names (grandma and aunt), one Rose one Olivia.

Our dds each have one of those 3 middle names. I have no problem with them being popular, we like them and they're short and simple and go well with their 3-syllable, less common first names.

I'm a child of the 80s and always had at least one other girl in my class with the same first and middle name as me, plus some with just the same first name. I was Nick M eveywhere, never just Nick. At least I've avoided that for my girls!

I adore the name Rose, and have it on my list for if we have another girl along with April, Maddie, Teaghan and Poppy.

I feel like people cant win. If they choose something mainstream, it is 'common'. If they choose something unusual it is 'pretentious'.

The only names I think are seriously ugly & worthy of condemnation are Beatrice and Ottilie. Just horrific.

When my 17 year old was in primary school, out of the 14 girls in her class, 12 had Rose or Grace as middle names. The other had May! My dd doesn't have a filler middle name...

It's interesting that people have said on this thread that Louise, Jane, Anne and Elizabeth were the most popular middle names in the 80s and the 70s. I was born in the 60s and almost every girl I knew had one of those four. So they were popular as middle names for three decades.

I wonder if Rose, May and Grace will have the same longevity, or if there'll be a new trend.

sunyla Thank you so much! She is now 15 and has always gotten a lot of compliments including from her friends. Sure some of the other girls also have the middle name Grace, but they think it’s fun to share a middle name.

I've noticed most people on here who choose one of these names claim that it's essential they choose it as "it's a family name".

Either it's a generational thing where all grandparents at the moment are called these names or people just like them, they flow nicely, and people kind of delude themselves that it's the only family name they could choose.

They're all nice to be fair, they're just so boring now.

Our DD’s first name is long and we needed a short middle name. I’m not usually that fussed on popularity - our other DC has a Top 20 name and I don’t regret it - but despite Rose and Grace sounding perfect with her long first name I just couldn’t do it and picked another random name. I am glad she’s not another Rose really.

(Couldn’t use a family name as anyone we would have wanted to name her after either had quite ugly or dated names or very long names, which would have sounded a bit ridiculous together).

They are the default middle names (I work with kids) and I inwardly roll my eyes when I hear yet another Ellie-May Eva-Grace or Lily-May or Lexi-Mae or Gracie-May or Lily-Rose. The playground is monopolised with them and it’s so dull!

@4kidmom I actually know a Julianna Grace! It's a lovely name.

The boys equivalent is James. If there's a thread asking for a middle name for a boy it will go 'James springs to mind'. 'Yes, James was my first thought too' etc.

I don’t think popular is bad though. As long as you love it. We named our daughter Julianna Grace knowing that a Grace is a popular middle name. We love it!

I have all of those 3 for my girls, plus a 4th who has Beth as her middle name. I’ve always preferred one syllable middle names.

I’m from the United States and Rose and Grace are super popular here too. Elizabeth is the other one that is super popular. Most of my friends growing up had Lynn, Ann or Marie as their middle name.

My DDs middle name is Elizabeth after our mothers as they both have Elizabeth in their name..
If my next one is a girl we wanted to have her middle name after our sisters as we both have one. Their first names dont make good middle names and their middle names... can you guess?? Rose and Louise
They are good filler names but sooooo common. Need some more creative short names in the mix. My middle name is Debra which always gets a shocked response as I agree it's pretty random! Haha

DD has May as her middle name (she's 12) which was partly from a family connection. I had no idea it was so popular until I walked into NICU and there she was, in a row of three baby girls called Ellie May, Lily May and Gracie Mae.

As a pp said it is a middle name so we're not aware of loads of them BUT I do have to explain a lot that her name isn't X-May, it's just X, and May is her middle name. People do hyphenate them quite a lot but we haven't.

All lovely choices. I don't think you can go wrong

When I was at school in the late 80's we formed a group in the playground where we all went by our middle names. It was all the girls in the class, around 18 I think, and only four middle names between the lot of us - Louise, Jane, Anne and Elizabeth.

My daughter has Rose as a middle name but she’s 32. Her first name wasn’t in the top100 either but I think is now in the top 50. Irritating.

Id say the most popular is Rose. I'm forever hearing "Suchabody Rose, Come here etc ect".

One of my dds has Rose as her middle name. We chose it because we liked it, it goes well with her name, and because we planted a rose during the pregnancy and it blooms at exactly the time of her (summer) birthday.

Yes it's extremely common, but the thing is, there could be 10 more X Roses in her class and I wouldn't know, because nobody really only the child themselves and the parents will ever use it or know it. So she's the only *** Rose to us. In fact, I think if I were to ask dh what the kids' middle names are right this minute, he'd probably have to think about it !

They are names that tend to go well with other names, and as a result seem like filler middle names.

When I was at school, Ann and Jane were the go to middle names, and quite a few had Margaret as mn. (Sally Anne, Laura Jane, Sarah Jane, Helen Margaret ...)

When DC were at school, it seemed like all their friends had the mn Louise.

Now it's Rose or Grace or May.

This site has the top middle names in the Telegraph birth announcements. Rose is indeed top!

www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2020/01/most-popular-names-in-the-telegraph-2019.html

I'm not sure England and Wales releases middle name info, but Northern Ireland does (the top 5 anyway).

www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2019/07/top-100-most-popular-names-in-northern-ireland-2018.html

It was Marie and Louise when I was in school, myself having one of them

Rose is the worst, I mean it's pretty and goes with everything but I feel like every little girl these days has it as her middle. I can't help rolling my eyes a little when I hear another Rose middle name be announced!

It's even worse when it's hyphenated in the first name