Do middle names need to mean something?

[AquaWoods]

Hiya our wee boy is here and we want his middle name to be Theodore (it's too popular for his 1st name, but we still absolutely love it, so like the idea of it as a middle name). My mum says she doesn't get it and that he should have a family middle name, so does MIL, etc.

What do you think?

Middle names can be whatever you want, they don't have to be a family name or anything.

I'm guessing all the Lily mays and grace roses don't all have relatives called Rose or may.

Just choose a name you like.

I don't think any name has to mean something. It's just a name you like. My dd has a middle name that was just something we liked, whereas my ds has a middle name in honour of someone. But it really doesn't matter either way

Mine don't have family names.

But their middle names still "mean" something to us. We have two who are named after lead singers of our favourite bands, one who is named after a song, and one who is named after a character in my favourite book.

Family names are unoriginal and predictable, IMO. I did my family tree and every bloody person was named John, Elizabeth, William, Margaret or Henry. So boring. Also a pain in the ass to differentiate between.

They don't have to.

Me and DH are deliberately staying away from family middle names because where do you stop? "oh we had one from your side so now we need one from mine/if we do one gran and not the other will they be offended?". I kind of feel the family members who make a big thing about them being family names really mean they think it should be theirs or their sides and would feel snubbed if it didn't go their way.

Of course they don't have to.

But more importantly, don't tell family his names until the ink is dry on the birth certificate!

Not at all.

No, no, no, no, no.

Just pick the names you like.

My dc has a random word as a middle name. We initially game them the name of a relative who objected so I substituted it for the first word that popped into my head. Dc loves it and no one else has it. Best of all no one else can object because it's not theirs to object to.

You can choose any name you want, it's your baby.

Mine have family middle names except my youngest, where I chose a name I'd always loved.

They don't need to mean something, but I do think it's much nicer if they do.

You never really use your middle name so it matters much less if it's a 'nice' name that you're using just because you like the sound of it. You're hardly ever going to say it after all.

I think it's really nice to have a story about the middle name that you can tell them. It doesn't have to be a family name though. Love Super's ideas, it could be a place name, name that has a meaning that is special to you or something.

Theodore 'coz it's nice but too popular', just seems a bit meh.

I've never encountered anyone in real life who has a middle name that's anything other than "my parents thought it was nice". Meaningful middle names seems to be a MN thing.

I have the most popular 80s filler middle name because my parents wanted to belance out my unusual first name.

'I've never encountered anyone in real life who has a middle name that's anything other than "my parents thought it was nice'

I don't believe that you have asked every person you've ever met, what their middle name is and why their parents chose it.

That can't possibly be true.

It's entirely up to you. Many people have family names or use maiden names etc. DS has a pretty unusual first name so we gave him a 'normal' middle name so that he has the option to use it in the future if he doesn't like his first name.

The eldest dd in our family always has a particular name as one of their names - normally the middle name. I love the continuity of it but that's a personal thing. There are no rules.

We just picked DS middle name because we liked it and I felt it flowed well with his given name and our surname. No particular
meaning whatsoever!

My parents just named us names they liked, no family names, (in fact no middle names), and think it is quite funny that we have all gone back to being 'traditional' naming kids after grandparents etc.

I sometimes think they had the right idea.