To not like non-family middle names

[Coffeeandajigsaw]

I'm of the opinion that middle names should be family names, or possibly something with significance, not names just chosen because you like the sound of it. Yes I know it's a free world and my own middle name is very much a 'vanity' middle name (ta, mum) but I just think it's a bit silly. Pick a dead relative, or even a living one, or if you hate your family, just don't bother with a middle name at all!

Especially hate filler names, too many Isla Graces and Jessica Roses!

Sorry if I'm being offensive, was just interested to know if this is just me?

My eldest DS has 2 middle names and I couldn't give a fuck if anyone else likes it or not.

I think in Spain middle names aren't allowed?

WHich is why you often get hyphenated first names.

That's what my DD has btw. She has an English and a foreign name. So she can pick whichever one she likes when she's older. So neither are 'family' names at all.

Thinking about it some more all my children's names (forenames and middle names), bar one, have family significance so I have adhered to this new naming rule.

It wasn't deliberate, though.

No, he has a forrin first name so doesn't need a forrin middle name. His father's family call him by his name :) I know a couple where the son has an English name in England and a forrin middle name which he is known by in forrinland. I did not like that idea.

Ehric I see.

I often find it surprising when people have family surnames as their middle name. I dont mind, as it's none of my business, but it always sounds odd- not like a name at all, IYSWIM.

But I think in the US it's very common?

My first name is after my mother's best friend and my middle name is after my father's deceased mother.

My boys have individual first names and a middle name to remember someone in the family. Both my daughter's names are just for her, out of nowhere, but they sound nice together. That was because I was forced to remember a family member for DS1; I resented it so chose my own names for DD; then by the time DS2 was born a close family member had recently died and we all agreed to remember him.

Never come across this idea. Is it a new trend?

I don't personally like it.

My middle name is Jane, the combination of it and my first name have been used in my family since least 1550.

You can trace your family back to 1550? Are you royalty?

Well my DD has a family 1st name so her middle name is random - is that OK or not???

I see my children's middle names as a sort of 'spare' in case they don't like their first name. Their first names are both classic but fairly unusual these days, whereas their middle names are 'safer'.

Although DS's middle name was my grandfather's middle name, so it's sort of a family name.

You can trace your family back to 1550? Are you royalty?

You don't have to be. I'm as plebby as they come and I have traced my maternal grandfather's line back to 1660 with very little effort. I dare say with more digging I could go back further.

Up to you, mine have non family middle names and I couldn't care less what you think of them.

But even names you can trace back for generations must have started with a person given the name for no particular reason other than their mum liked it

im happy for anyone to name their child anything they like. id rather save my energy or things that directly affect me.

YATotallyBU.

FWIW, in my family we have a tradition where all the girls have the same middle name and all the boys have the same middle name. In DH's family all the boys have the same middle name. it is just a custom, quite nice, but means my two DS's each have two middle names. (Yes yes yes, i know... that is not acceptable either according to some on MN).

BUT... we have a very unusual family name. If my surname was Smith and i wanted to name my daughter John or Jane i would want to distinguish them somehow by an unusual middle name. Or just a middle name.

Why not? people can name their kids how they like in the main part- as long as it is not something truly obnoxious. (Satan comes to mind).

Fuckoffandmindyourownbusiness is quite a nice middle name...

Why is everyone getting so wound up? it's just a thread about middle names.

how fascinating

Welcome to MN, OP. Did you register especially to tell us this?

yanbu I completely agree with you!

people are clearly free to name their children as they please but I follow this way of thinking. All my siblings middle names are family names as are their children's. same with dh's family so definitely not alone.

If we ever have a DD, she wouldn't have a middle name connected to family as it would spark WW5 of family politics (we have had a few WWs since WW2 . DS2's middle name is random albeit connected to DH's culture, we just liked it. We'd run out of family names having bestowed 3 family names on DS1.

Who cares what a middle name is? As long as it's sensible and works with the overall name package. It's not worth being bothered about as you rarely hear someone's complete name anyway.

why should middle names be family names? i can understand why some people do, but its completely beyond me why anyone thinks that it should be the case?

By the time you get back as far as the 1660s most of the women are called Mary, Jane, Elizabeth, Grace, Catherine, Anne or the variants of these names. Once in a while you get someone's parents coming over all Zipporah but choice was fairly limited.

If we all stuck to family names there wouldn't be very much choice.

I like middle names to be family names. Considering people generally never use anything beyond their first names, it seems pointless to give them more names just for the sake of it.

Me and DH had this discussion with DS2. DS1 has both his grandfathers as middle names. I couldn't think of any other men I wanted to recognise when it came to DS2 so I was going to just leave him with no middle name but DH thought it would be equally weird not to give him a middle name. So I said it was up to him and he chose some great-someone-or-other in his Dad's family. I said he'll have to explain it to DS2 when he's older!