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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I don't have a middle name

235 replies

NotMyCircusNotMyProblem · 17/02/2023 18:54

Firstly, this is a bit light hearted and I've not lost any sleep over this, nor will I ever but, my parents didn't give me a middle name.

I have elder siblings who both have middle names.

As a child, I did question my mum as to why, but she just brushed it off saying, your name was lovely enough and you didn't need a middle name.

Im now in my 50s and I've never given it much thought until recently - why didn't I get a middle name? Were my parents that fed up with kids they couldn't be bothered to think of one? Did they not think I would feel the odd one out because I don't have one? I can't ask my parents now, they've both passed away.

Maybe middle names in the 60s were not such a big thing then... although all my peers and friends,,, everyone I know seem to have middle names.

So, do you have a middle name, how old are you and AIBU in feeling unloved at not having a middle name?

OP posts:
Apparentlystillchilled · 17/02/2023 18:56

I don’t have a middle name but all my siblings do. I was born in the 70s, so not just a 60s thing.

bluelollipop99 · 17/02/2023 18:56

YANBU - everyone should have at least one middle name !

Todaynotalways · 17/02/2023 18:56

Maybe it's simply that by the time it came to their third child they didn't feel the pressure from friends and family to provide a three-part-name... they just did what they wanted rather than what society expected.

Hankunamatata · 17/02/2023 18:56

Siblings probably got lumbered with family middle names.

Sistanotcista · 17/02/2023 18:57

OP, I am also born in the sixties, and also don’t have a middle name. Maybe it’s a flower 🌺 power thing!

WhisperingAutistic · 17/02/2023 18:57

I don't have a middle name, neither do my siblings or my mum. My dad does though.
I was born late 70s.

BellaJuno · 17/02/2023 18:57

I’ve not got one, my siblings do. Can’t say it’s ever bothered me, the only time my siblings ever use their middle names is to write them on a form.

Pallisers · 17/02/2023 18:59

I dated a guy whose older brother and younger sister both had middle names but he didn't. Don't think it bothered him. He was a lovely guy.

CloakAndTin · 17/02/2023 18:59

I'm one of 5 siblings, all born in the 60s, none of us have a middle name. The family joke is we were so poor we couldn't afford them! None of us were christened either.

HundredMilesAnHour · 17/02/2023 18:59

My Dad doesn't have a middle name. Neither does my best friend (born 1970) - her parents thought she already had enough to handle with a 3 syllable first name and 3 syllable surname. Neither of them has ever been bothered about it and why would they be?!

Theunamedcat · 17/02/2023 19:00

My parents don't have middle names they gave us middle names though! My son has two thanks to a family argument and my other child has a "foreign" (their words) middle name due to similar circumstances and I rebelled and put it in it will certainly cause confusion to future ancestry researcher's

FredPolice · 17/02/2023 19:00

@NotMyCircusNotMyProblem I have several. Would you like one of mine? Elfreda is up for grabs if so.

Orangetapemeasure · 17/02/2023 19:00

70s baby. Eldest child. No middle name. Both younger siblings have middle names. Hate my Christian name, also hate my maiden surname, which can also be a first name (although have kept it professionally). So it was lose lose all round for me!!

NeedMoMoney · 17/02/2023 19:00

My older brother didn't get a middle name, he was the first born, but me and my sister both got middle names, I've never really asked my mother why we did and he didn't, think I'll ask her now it's in my head 😄

Communionmom · 17/02/2023 19:00

I have a middle name (born 1978) (and a confirmation name), DH and his brothers (born between 1975 and 1985) don't have a middle name.

Neither of my DC have a middle name. It was hard enough to pick one name.

To add, I'm Irish and, until I met DH (whose Dad is English), I had never met anyone who didn't have a middle name!

HazzleMcDazzle · 17/02/2023 19:00

I don't have a middle name (plus I have a really boring first name) and it's always rankled. So much so that I overcompensated and gave my DC two middle names each.

DancingDolly · 17/02/2023 19:01

No middle names for me or my siblings (70's). I am your parents though and my eldest doesn't have a middle name and youngest does. We struggled to find one name we liked for eldest (daughter) and then other half really liked another name for son so it went as middle.

NigelHargreaves · 17/02/2023 19:01

I don’t have a middle name and absolutely hate my first name. My sister got lovely first and middle names Envy

Lucyccfc68 · 17/02/2023 19:01

All my siblings were given a middle name, except me. I got lumbered with a double barrelled first name that people struggle to pronounce.

I have 1 DS and never give him a middle name - don’t really see the point of them.

Munchyseeds2 · 17/02/2023 19:01

I'm in my 50's, no middle name because I was born early and baptised the same night, my siblings have one

DH does not have one, he was the last of 3 and I don't think they were that bothered

Theunamedcat · 17/02/2023 19:02

I mean foreign as in "NEVER in our family history has any child had THAT name" btw which was the whole argument traditional family names vrs something new

Thatsnotmybee · 17/02/2023 19:04

I don't have one either (80s baby). My younger brother does though.

The story goes that my mum wanted me to have a middle name but my dad rushed off to register me before she could tell him. I do wish I had one occasionally. I suppose I could change it myself but I can't be bothered so I clearly don't care that much!

SamMil · 17/02/2023 19:05

I was born in the 80s and don't have a middle name.

KirstenBlest · 17/02/2023 19:05

I don't have one. My parents didn't have any, and some of my cousins don't have any.
DC don't have any.

SweetSenorita · 17/02/2023 19:05

I was born in 1967. My middle name is Jane. Dad wanted it to be first name but Mum reckoned he had an old girlfriend called Jane, so she relegated it 🤣

My first name is much cooler 😍