How did you choose your children's second names?

[MMfanalltheway]

Mine are named after saints I prayed to during pregnancy.
I guess a lot have second names after grandparents (I'm named after my paternal grandmother).
If you don't have those reasons, do you just pick a pretty name that you like?

2 middle names, one from each side of the family tree

2 were arbitrary names we liked, one was a grandparent. with hindsight the 2 arbitrary ones are utterly pointless.

Family names
My father ( deceased but had been a fantastic father and so clever )
My husband ( Another amazing man )
Both my grandmother's ( a version of a name they shared but neither used in full form ) .

I would only ever name after special people and never use a name of anyone I had not know in the middle name slot. These are the names of inspirational People they can be proud of and were good people. None of these names are common middle names so no Rose or Grace etc and all flow well.

DS1 has FILs middle name as his middle name. Partly because DH liked the idea of naming him after his dad (even though FIL grumpily responded 'that's not after me is it? I hate my middle name) and partly because we liked the name but it was very popular around the time I was pregnant so I didn't want to use it as a first name. It works really well with his first name.

DS2 has the same first name as my late grandfather and it was the only boys name DH and I could agree on. His middle name was just one that I loved, that worked really well with it. DH wasn't as convinced but had no better suggestions and saw how I loved them together so agreed. When he went to register him, he said 'it looks lovely written down'. Yes, I know.

My ds1 who died shortly after birth and my ds2 both had the same middle names. Their Grandads names...

Ds has both grandfathers names

Luckily my Mum and DH’s Grandmother have the same name so that’s DC1’s middle name.
DC2 has my sibling’s name.
DC3 has a variation of my name. Like mine is Rose, hers is Rosetta.

DS1 and DS2 after grandparents. DS3 after a TV character but luckily it was also MIL maiden name.

My girls have two mns

Dd1 has a mn which is a name I loved but was too popular for me to be a first name and her second mn is after dh grandmother who died before dd was born

Dd2 has one middle name that is the female version of my grandads name and the other is a name I loved but couldn't use as a first name as I don't like the inevitable shortening

dd1 has my grandma and mils middlename for her middlename
dd2 is SILs name for her mn
DS has late BILs name for his mn
dd3 has my grandads name in the feminine form for her mn

I love threads like this, hearing everyone's naming reasons / stories.

I don't like using "family" names. A child should have their own identity. And also then there are some people who get jealous the baby was named after someone else, etc.

I just picked my two favourites as first and middle name. For my second child I did specifically pick a Russian name as middle since my first already had one, and I have a (distant) connexion to Russia.

DD’s middle name was primarily chosen just because I like it though it was also the name of a distant aunt.

DS’s middle name is the first name of my grandfather and his dad’s grandfather. We decided on that as middle name then worked the first name around it!

Ds has the name of dh's brother who died young. It is a lovely name and my own mum wondered why we didn't use it as a first name but I couldn't do that to MIL and FIL.

DDs middle names are after my mum and my mil. both are lovely classic names.

We just picked our second best name. It was a mistake really, as dd2 is on the way and we're really struggling with names! I don't actually have a middle name, but I have a very unusual first name. I'm not sure that I really see the point of them - they're never used.

@happymummy12345
Please learn more about Roman Catholic and Church of England beliefs and history. They are one religion, not two. Have your child baptised! It's ok, all the people belong to God!

I'll start by saying each child has 2 middle names as soon do both myself and hubby so we wanted to continue this

First son middle names were after hubbys first name and then after my uncle

Second son middle names we use the 2 grandads names

I used my maiden name as middle name .

Saints names. I wasn't that religious at the time but felt a Saint's name was important.

@happymummy12345 omg you two really should have talked to a vicar and a priest 🙈

Both DS's have my grandparents middle names, which were David and Thomas, so thankfully nice names!

DS’ middle name is a family surname that I remember saying to my grandmother when I was 12/13 that I wanted to use it.

18 years later, I’ve used it & my family member who also has the name as a middle name was really touched.

I honestly don't know what made me choose my DD's middle name. It just popped into my head and I went with it! Same with her actual name, gave it 5 mins thought after she was born and it seemed to fit so we stuck with it.

I hope she never asks if there is a deep and meaningful reason for her names

My eldest has my grandmother's name as her middle, my middle child has a name we loved the meaning of as his middle but didn't work as a first name and my youngest has the name of my great uncle (my grandmother's only brother) who died fighting in WW2 at a terribly young age.

Both of mine have my maiden name as a middle name. DS also has my Mum's maiden name, which is a common first name as well as a surname.

Both my grandmothers had family surnames as middle names so we could say it was a family tradition. But actually, they each got first names which reflect DHs heritage and his surname, so I wanted something to represent my family too.

There was no way we could have gone down the route of family names without upsetting someone so we didn't even try.