What do you need middle name for?

[Viletta]

Hi there, I'm not originally from the UK and where I'm from we don't have middle names. What are they for in real life? Is it to distinguish John A Smith from John B Smith? Do you use them ever? I know that some people like Paul Mccartney use their second name, but that's rather an exception isn't it? Is it just a tradition? I like how two names look and sound and that it can be almost a brand, I also like that we can stick a relative's name as middle name and honour them this way. But wondering what this actually means for you? Do you like/use your middle name ever? DH is British, he likes having middle name but when would he ever use it apart of official paperwork.

I think it’s just for the sake of it really...

One of my D.C. has one, one doesn’t

Pretty sure they were meant as your Christian name, you don't actually need one.

I also don’t see the point of middle names.. they don’t really have a use.

I will give my baby one because I don’t want them to feel their parents couldn’t be bothered to pick one.

I do know a few (mainly older) people who use their middle name instead of their first name, because they really do not like their first name. I think it’s good to have that option too.

Think of them as an insurance policy, or a mechanism to keep both sides of the family happy.

So you call DS John William Alan Smith.

John is “his” name. William and Alan are his grandfathers’ names, so both sides of the family are happy.

Hold on.....John suddenly becomes a toxic name (think Karen) and DS can now use Jack, Will, Alan etc

Neither I nor my sibling has one. Sometimes they are used as the day-to-day name, with the first name being a "formal" name, as was the case with my father's family (not from mainland UK), but most of the time they are not used, and no-one outside of immediate family / close friends is aware of them.

Also used by some to recognise wealthy single godparents.......

Pretty much as you describe, to distinguish yourself from every other Robert Jones there is. And they're especially helpful when setting up email addresses and online accounts.

My husband comes from a country where it's a lot more common to use a middle name in preference to your first name. He uses his middle name, as he hates the way his first name is pronounced in the region he grew up!

I know one person who uses their middle name as a first name, although he just decided to do it out of nowhere a few years ago in his mid 30s. no one else I know really uses their middle names though.

Mine is arbitrary and was just the done thing, just use it on official paperwork like most people I know.

my DCs have my parents names as middle names so theirs does mean something, my DD is very proud her name is like her grandmas. A lot of other kids I know seem to have middle names for the sake of it or because their parents think it's cute or whatever (Rae/Mae particularly for girls). Totally personal preference, but there's impact either way.

GO on Facebook and search for a name and it’s almost guaranteed that there will be a number of users with the same name — even names ones one would feel weren’t particularly popular combinations of first and surnames. This can also be a problem if the middle name is a popular second name such as Lily, Rose, Ann. If you have a slightly less popular middle name you are less likely to have your identity confused with someone else’s in official records. Searching records for genealogy I’ve been amazed by the number of identically named babies born and or baptised on the same day in places scattered all over the UK.

We used middle names as a way of adding someone we loved to our child’s name without using it for their first name.

My first child has my Nan’s maiden name as their middle name and she’s no longer around now so it warms my heart knowing that he has this as his middle name and we can talk about her.

To know when you're really in trouble because the full name gets used (or even more trouble with certain folk who will just start adding names as they shout after you). I'm told by the time my mother was in her teens, my grandmother had a set pattern of about a dozen names she's use.

There are a lot of different naming systems and traditions, and those where middle names are common developed for different reasons. In some, middle names were where the mother's maiden name or surname of another recent ancestor - so a family name, but not the family name. Also in some communities with fewer surnames, it does help distinguish between people.

There are also communities and cultures where someone has several different names - patronym, other family names, community names, clans - and in attempts to universalize for official documents, these sometimes end up in documentation and treated in that way as middle names. And, as previously mentioned, there is the Christian name and other religious names that in some communities would be added to someone's name.

I have two middle names, neither are the two middle names I was raised with as I changed my entire name as an adult. They're just part of who I am and actually a few years after I changed my name, I realized that the three initials spell another name which I use in my professional life.

My kids all have two middle names, we kinda altered using a religious name, which is common where I'm from - using a Biblical or saint name - to using one with a virtuous meaning we would want them to have, and then for the second, a family name that isn't our surname. So, when I finalized my name change, which was after all my kids were born, I followed the same pattern.

Don't need them for anything really.

DH doesn't have middle names and says they aren't really done in his country as everyone will take a confirmation name later on anyway.

Lots of people I know chose to be known by their middle name day to day when older

So it's good to have a middle name if you don't like your first name

Not so good if you don't like your middle name either though I suppose

"I will give my baby one because I don’t want them to feel their parents couldn’t be bothered to pick one."

What a bizarre way to think. I don't have a middle name....just texted my mum after all these decades to see if the reason for that is that she just couldn't be arsed

They’re not necessary, but as someone who doesn’t have a middle name I remember always wanting one as a child. We’ve given DS a middle name which is the name of my dearly loved grandfather, who passed away 5 years ago. It’s a lovely way to remember him and my grandma was really touched that we chose to do that. Makes me smile every time I see it in DS’s medical records and stuff.

Good question, they are quite pointless I suppose (but I still gave my DC middle names). I never use mine.

Most people don't use them daily, it's more on official paperwork and documents.
I don't have one because I have a hyphenated first name. I know they are hated on here but it's better than a middle name i never use. My
full first name is used all the time.

Just because. I don't have a middle name. Dh has 2, as do all our dc.

This article gives a brief history of how middle names came about.

My parents never gave either me or my sister a middle name- what's the point? You never use it. Neither of my DDs have a middle name either although we all have a sort of middle name from DHs family which makes a sort of double barrelled surname.

I have the same middle name as every third person of my generation but as a teen I double barrelled it with my (equally well used) first name and have been known as that ever since. My parents named me after an elderly relative but the year I was born my first name exploded in popularity. I was more careful with my kids but they have middle names I really liked rather than filler or popular ones.

I don't have one. Never been a problem.

I wouldn't have given my kids one, but I got over ruled by DH because it's his family's tradition. Pfft.

They do come in handy when distinguishing yourself from another person with the same first name in social/family circles too.

My sister in law and I both have the same first name, so instead of us being mixed up all the time, we are (for instance - name's changed) Katherine Ann and Katherine Jane rather than being Michael's Katherine and Robert's Katherine (which would deeply piss both of us off as the most outspoken GC feminists in the family).

Same goes at work if there's another female with the same name in the name department, I go by First Name-Middle Name, in an attempt to not have amusing descriptors added to my name "Katherine with the big arse" etc

@Antonin good point!