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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not understand middle names with no meaning?

144 replies

QueenofKelsingra · 13/01/2015 11:37

Just been lurking about on baby names.

Can someone please explain the rationale of spending months agonising over finding a second name that they love, just for it to be a middle name that is basically never used other than on official paperwork? I don't get it

My 3 DC have middle names that belonged to family members no longer with us that we wanted to remember and wanted the kids to be aware of as they grow up. it would never occur to DH and I to used a name we just liked as a middle name - save it for the next DC! plus it took us long enough to find one name we liked enough for each DC first name

If you have no-one you want to commemorate why give a middle name at all??

OP posts:

ChocolateOranges · 13/01/2015 17:35

I have a middle name which goes with the first name.

My sister got the family name (thank god it wasn't me as it's dire!)

Daughter has 2 middle names but we call her something completely different.

GatoradeMeBitch · 13/01/2015 19:20

My middle name is Jane. No reason. It's just a common middle name to give a girl, according to DM... I feel like changing it to Amadeus or Sarsaparilla, just to give me a giggle!

crumblebumblebee · 13/01/2015 19:24

msgrinch "my middle name is the name of my mums childhood imaginary friend."

That is wonderfully weird and very funny!

msgrinch · 13/01/2015 19:37

It's a nice name as well

BolshierAyraStark · 13/01/2015 19:44

It never ceases to amaze me the things people choose to take issue with...

My two have middle names that 'mean' nothing other than we liked it, sorry you don't understand this.

I also find the dead relative thing odd, your child will never know the person so why would you give them that name?

CPtart · 13/01/2015 19:57

I think it looks more impressive on a job application form, gives a better impression so to speak. As long as the Christian name wasn't hideous (dare I say chavvy?), the addition of a middle name would positively influence me as an employer.

SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker · 13/01/2015 20:01

The middle name we gave our second son is one I love in its full length but abhor the shortened nick name version. So we gave it to him as his middle name so I wouldn't ever hear the short version for him.

Also his first name is more unusual and his middle name is more traditional so if he had hated his first name growing up he had another choice -- although that would make the nickname thing possible.

iklboo · 13/01/2015 20:11

All my dead relatives have very, very old fashioned names that we don't like. When FIL started posturing about who we HAD to name DS after he was politely but very firmly told to forget it.

I know a boy who is (let's say) George Albert Smith VI. Now that's odd - to me.

Even if we'd have called DS Algernon Sideboard Lovemuffin, it's no-one's business except ours.

CalicoBlue · 13/01/2015 20:16

We thought a lot about the middle names. We are Welsh and wanted to give our kids welsh names, but felt that if they had Welsh first names no one in London would be able to pronounce them. So for my DD and DS they have strong Welsh names as their first middle name.

My mother is Scottish and in Scotland there is a tradition of naming the first boy after the fathers father and the first girl after the mothers mother etc. So my DD has my mothers name and DS has his fathers fathers name as his second middle name.

I thought it a nice nod at their cultural heritage.

However DD can not pronounce r's and everyone of her names has an r in it.

catgirl1976 · 13/01/2015 20:47

DS's middle name is the nickname we had for my bump. The bump was called, unfortuantly for him, Boris.

So, Boris is his middle name

catgirl1976 · 13/01/2015 20:48

And his first name is that of DH's childhood dog

IneedAwittierNickname · 13/01/2015 23:41

CatThiefKeith

I haven't even got a middle name. 5 letter first name, 6 letter second name. I NEVER used to win 'what's the time Mr Wolf'. angry

I'm confused. What has the length of your name got to do with What's the time Mr Wolf?

PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange · 13/01/2015 23:44

Middle name is for the purpose of telling a child off.

My dc know if I say the full name it's not good.

Theboodythatrocked · 14/01/2015 00:02

Ds 1 has dh middle name, ds2 has both uncles as mids. Dd1 has mine and Darling mils who died when she was born dd2 has all my sils names so has 4 names.

Lovely.

QueenFuri · 14/01/2015 06:59

I don't have a middle name always wanted one though.

DS1 has two named after his paternal grandpa/dad/uncle and my grandpa.

DS2 his middle name is in honour of a very important person Dave Grohl .

IMO a middle name name can mean anything you want it too mean.

Diabolomenthe · 14/01/2015 07:06

My dd1 had her grand mother's names and dd2 has my 2 best friends names when I was growing up.

Dwerf · 14/01/2015 07:19

I go by my middle name and always have done, my parents gave a first name that they then never used. It's not even unusual in my family, my granddad, aunt, uncle and cousin all go/went by their middle names.

Three of my kids have middle names for members of my family (grandmother, great aunt and granddad) and the other one has a name her dad chose; the two names go very well together but have no special meaning.

Notagainmun · 14/01/2015 07:22

I am another who gave my DC biblical middle names.

KirjavaTheCat · 14/01/2015 07:23

My son doesn't have one, but DD does. We couldn't think of a name that 'meant' anything for him, and now we've given DD one (that 'means' a great deal' I feel odd about not giving him something as a middle name, even if it was just a name. But then I have weird symmetry issues.

DurhamDurham · 14/01/2015 07:27

My oldest DD has a middle name chosen just because we liked it and it sounded lovely with her first name. Our youngest DD's middle name is an Aunt's name but we mainly chose it because we liked it.

I have no regrets

Horopu · 14/01/2015 07:39

My children have a very common surname. At DS1's (small) school there is another child with the same name. There is also a (different) child with the same name treated in the same (smallish) department as him at hospital. There is a child with the same name as DS3 at our doctors'. Having middle names for my kids has proved useful.

My middle name is the name of my uncle's labrador that my mum was very fond of, it means I can say I'm named after a bitch.

GloopMonster · 14/01/2015 08:37

horopu, my dm's middle name was her mother's dog's name! Fortunately dm has sense of humour about it

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 14/01/2015 08:40

Both DD and DS have our favourite two names as their first and middle names. Why discard a name we love to put the name or a relative in there instead?

ReindeersAreBetterThanPeople · 14/01/2015 08:45

In my family, and DH's, everyone has a middle name.

It's just traditional.

So we wanted DC to have middle names too. They didn't have to be "meaningful", they were just names we both liked, that we thought sounded good in combination with their first names.

If they want to, in the future, they could decide to be known by their middle names, or they could end up hardly ever being used, just something on passports and other official documents that distinguish them a bit more from other people with the same first name and last name.

But the fact remains, it's traditional - and I think it is a nice tradition - in our families to have a middle name, so we do.

Only1scoop · 14/01/2015 08:49

Dd has no middle name.

They are seldom ever used. Fine to use a family name but some of the huge deliberations on here make me smile.

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