Do you think middle names are important?

[ncfortoday]

Just that please!

I dont have one and always wanted one, as all.my friends had one. My dm had 2 middle names and didnt want to saddle as with big names.

Both my dc have family middle names.

Yes I think they are

They are very important to me. I go by mine all the time because I don't like my first name.

My DC all have middle names that have a special meaning to me.

My DM doesn't have a middle name and wishes she had as she doesn't like her first name.

As I child I was very jealous of my brother because he had two middle names and I only had one.

I don't have one and was always very, very glad that I didn't.

We have given DD a meaningful one, though. Wouldn't do it for the sake of it, or try and force it.

I wouldn't say they are important. I think it's a definite plus to have one.

I think they are. I love mine and I've given all of my boys meaningful (family names) ones to carry on tradition.

To some extent. They are

1. A chance to use an extra name you love

1. A chance to honour/Rene at someone special

1. An option in later life for someone who doesn't like their first name

Often middle names aren't used, so aren't always hugely significant on a daily basis but important enough that people should put some thought into them (I have friends who are so embarrassed by their middle names that they won't say what they are. Yet they still have to see it written in their passport etc)

I've not got one , dp hasn't, nor have the dds.

One of my colleagues at work doesn't have a middle name. The first thing my other colleagues said when they found out was "How did you know you were in trouble as a kid?"

*honour/remember

I don't have one and it really annoys me. Unsure why. But I always feel like I missed out. Monogram mint, things with full titles just never look right.

Nope. I don't think of my middle name much, nor anyone elses. I don't identify with mine or anyone elses middle name. TBH I think middle names are a pretty dated thing, saying that I'd still pick one for a future child. Middle names do serve a purpose to give a child a second option of a name if they hate the first name you've given them. Also middle names can help balance out a name and make it flow better.

"Important" might be too strong a word, but I never considered not giving my child one.

They help distinguish betweenpeople with the same name for compute records e.g. John Andrew Smith, John Robert Smith

They give the child a second option. My siblings and I all have unusual names, my parents gave me a nice standard middle name in case we didn't like them.

Not really, no. It was nice for us to be able to use a name we loved (and be a bit braver than we wanted to be with the first name) and they're nice for honouring relatives, etc. So I mean, I think they have significance to the parents, and sometimes can do to the person themselves as they grow up, but beyond that, to the rest of the world, they're meaningless and most often not even known.

No, and I don't use mine.

But funnily enough, I never considered NOT giving one to my kids I think it's a cultural thing.

Yes, I think it's nice to have two names.

Yes thankfully I have a middle name which saved me from ever having to use my awful first name! Ended up changing it by deed poll

Yes I think Scarlett is right, without a middle name there would potentially be more mix ups with people with the same name. That's one reason DS has his, so that there will be no one else with the same full name.
My second child is purely hypothetical at the moment but is already named and I'm spending a lot of time wondering what the middle should be. Nothing seems to work. Only occurred to me recently that they don't HAVE to have one. If they ever exist (s)he will though.

Important to have? Not really, DH doesn't have one. But they can be important to the family- ds1's middle name is my db's name, which is also my df's middle name, ds2's is dh's grandfather's name, ds3's is the name of my great uncle and dh's cousin. And as pp have said, middle names can be useful where there are two or more people with the same first and surnames.
My own middle name is such a middle name. I know so many women of my generation with the same middle name!

I thinkso, my mother tried to give us fairly normal middle names even though our first names weren't anything odd. My sister is Katie she hates it, hates that it's actually officially Kathleen Harriet now goes by her middle name.

I've never liked mine, but it's a really common and bland name (Anne) so it didn't seem that special iyswim, plus its my nan's name who I've never liked.

Both my kids have two middle names but they are more imaginative.

Middle names can be as Important to a child's identity as it is for a parent. My step dad father in law and niece are known by there middle names not the first name

Nope.

I've always have found it very strange that my mom doesn't have one, I have 2, the kids have 1 and DH has 1. Saying that I don't think my MIL has one either. Maybe it's a generational thing?

No, because my idiot parents called me by my middle and I spent years explaining that my name was Y and not X.

I now use both as they are a well known combination and much more classic together. My father still refuses to use my chosen full name 24 years on.

My daughters do not have middle names. They can add one by deed poll if they wish when they are old enough.