Is this a mad idea (adding a middle name to DD's name).

[howmanyhats]

When DD was born, her naming was up to me. I always knew what her first name would be, but wasn't sure about her middle name.

My mum suggested a family name (it's a classic name that always gets a lot of love on this board). I somehow got it in my head that it didn't go with DD's surname. But I think it was the hormones! It goes perfectly fine!

I gave her a trendy middle name instead that we have no connection to and have always regretted it. What was I thinking?!

I could tell my mum was really disappointed too, I didn't realise till afterwards that it would have meant an awful lot to her had I used that name. And it's a lovely connection to generations of women in our family who had this name or a version of it.

DD is now 8. We were talking about some family history stuff, and the name came up. I said she'd almost had that as a middle name, and she said she really liked it. I said "we could always add it as an extra name now, would you want to do that?" and she said she'd really like to. I don't think she took me particularly seriously, it was more of an off hand conversation than I can convey here, I wasn't being particularly serious.

But it's got me thinking - could we add another name to DD's name without a load of hassle for her? Would it be a pain for her if we added a name or a nice thing to do?

Is this just a bonkers idea and I should go back to accepting I let the hormones get the better of me?!

Or is not so mad if everyone's happy with the idea?

Yes I would think that is possible. If you can change your name by deed poll then I'm sure you could add to it.
A call to the registrar might settle your query.
Good luck it seems like it would mean such a lot to your mum too.

Yes it’s easy to do. My parents always used 2 middle names for me, and it was only when we had to confirm our names for our GCSE certificates that I found out I only had one official middle name. I wanted to keep both middle names, so IIRC my parents did a statutory declaration with a local solicitor.

I think possibly I had to send in my statutory declaration alongside my birth certificate for my passport but by this point (that was 20 years ago) I never need it for anything, never caused any issues, I have both my middle names on all paperwork etc. I don’t think people care about middle names really anyway in terms of checking them out!

I don't think it's a mad idea I think it's actually quite lovely if both your mother and your daughter like the idea.

Go for it.

My mum decided not to give me the family middle name. I added it myself for my 50th birthday .

Lovely idea if your daughter is on board - I always think it's really nice to use family names as middle names (and making your Mum happy is a bonus!).

Thank you so much everyone for your thoughts, I thought everyone was going to say I was nuts!

Lovely idea if your daughter is on board this is the thing. She is on board but I suspect it means a lot more to me than her, and if I never mentioned it again I wonder if she'd forget about it almost instantly, so I wonder if I'd be pushing this for my benefit, because I feel guilty for not giving her the name in the first place, rather than for her benefit IYSWIM?

Or perhaps I'm overthinking!

I think I'll mention it to my mum and see what she says, and then leave it a while before I mention it to DD again and see if she a. even remembers the idea b. is still into it and go form there.

Thanks everyone :)