How Do You Feel About Your Own Middle Name?

[35andThriving]

Just out of curiosity.

I have seen posts on here saying they don't matter much, that nobody really takes much notice of them after the birth announcement. I do take notice and have a good memory for people's full names.

I like my middle name as it is a family name and I like feeling connected to my other relatives through it.

Just thought this might make an interesting thread.

I have two and I love them. One has become fashionable and is an MN favourite, the other is after my favourite grandmother.

I love it! It goes back as a middle name for many, many generations on the female side in my family and my daughter has it too. I feel it gives me a connection to the women who went before me.

Isobel. Hate it. Born in the 70's, it was my Nana's middle name. Still don't like it.

@MadeOfStarStuff

Mine is Louise (along with most girls born in the 70s and 80s) it’s fine as a middle name, just boring but wouldn’t want it to be my first name

Mine is Louise too (80s) and at least one female cousin in each family has it too! My first name is just as common so I ended up in a class with another girl with the same first and middle name as me.

I think it’s boring, but if I had a more unusual first name I wouldn’t be too bothered

I like it. I have a very 90s first name and a traditional middle name after a relative - similar to Hayley Anne. I like that it ties me to my family and gives me options (even though I no longer speak to that relative.)

I don’t have one and didn’t give my son one. I truly cannot see a single point in them.

Someone commented they’re handy in the workplace if you share the same initials as someone else but need a unique identity for computer systems. In which case just put an x in between the initials or add the second letter of either first or surname.

I've got two and one of them should have been my first name but it was swapped at the last minute. I would much have preferred that to be my first name. The other is a family name that love.

Mine is a family name. I gave it to pfb. She intends to use a version of it for a dd should she have one. Or a mn for a ds...
It's Frances

My dad and aunt are both known by their middle names. My grandmother wanted them to have the first names of other family members but there was by them so many kids in the family with the same names that they had to be differentiated by their middle name. Generational/big immigrant family thing I guess

Mine is Alice, chosen by my mum for no or other reason than it went nicely after my first name (I’m not as keen on my first name). DD has Alice as her middle name too. We never set out to do that but no other names fitted as nicely, and DS has a middle name from DH’s side of the family so it seemed perfect. MIL considered the name for DH if he was a girl so everyone liked it.

Mine is a pleasant enough traditional name that flows nicely from my first name. I don't really feel any attachment to it though I use the initial in my signature.

Hated it as a kid. It’s a family male surname - my paternal grandmas maiden name. Dad had it too as a middle name.
Grown into it now those generations are gone and wished I’d passed it to my kids

A little left out as I don't have one! My older brother has one, but my parents just didn't bother with me. I know how much of a non-event this is, but it still stung as a child as my brother is the golden child, it was just one more thing they gave him that they didn't give me.

My middle name is my mum's first name. Very traditional and goes well with both my first and last names.
I always use the initial on work things.
My mum's mum called me Scarby Middle name until I was about 10, and continued to write it on cards until she died.

My middle name is Clare. I have no strong feelings about it, and these days often don't include it on forms that ask for my 'full name'. My reasoning is that I have unusual first name and unusual family name, so much so that I understand I'm the only person in the UK with that particular name combination.

Interestingly neither of my parents had middle names and were a bit miffed about this, so they wanted to make sure that their DC all had one!

DD’s middle name is the same as my Mum”s so for me, it’s a nice reminder of my Mum. ❤️

Mine is super-boring and I don’t think it has any family meaning, I never think about it.

@giletrouge

Never think about it. To the point when I met someone with my middle name as their first name it never even occurred to me that it was a name of mine! Might as well not have it really.

Ha, I’ve had to think for a minute when people ask me my middle name. There’s probably a decent chance that my DH has forgotten what it is too.

I am completely indifferent to it really, it’s just not something I ever think about.

I absolutely love mine, perhaps even more so than my first (which I also quite like). My sister agrees and used it as the middle name for her eldest, and it was our "second choice" first name for DD. If we ever have another daughter it might have its day in the sun as a first name. Funnily how my mum just chose it because she liked it, but it's become a family name now through re-use.

I dislike my first name (it's been described as 80s chavtastic before on MN, and I don't disagree) but really like my middle name (and in spite of me being an 80s baby, it isn't one of the limited mandated middle names).

If it was easy for me to switch to using my middle name, I would. As it's not, I use my full name - first, middle and surname wherever/whenever I can.

It was important to me that my DC had great middle names.

I don’t like it as a name, it’s very unusual and when anyone finds out we always have the same conversation which is them repeating the word and me confirming that it’s my real middle name.

I am glad it’s my middle name though, it never comes up in conversation as I don’t use it, so mostly I forget I even have it except the odd occasion where someone finds out.

I quite like my middle name but never use it. I think middle names are pointless.

My mum wanted my first name to be a slightly different version of my middle name but it wasn't allowed. Not like today when you can call a child any stupid name you want.

I would have quite liked my first name to be the name my mum wanted as it is quite unusual whereas my first name now is pretty common

My oldest finds her middle name dull (it is!). Her first name is very unusual so we gave her a straightforward middle name in case she wanted plain - not realising that everyone else has the same middle name (wasn't so popular as a first name at the time). Now she's an adult, she's thinking of adding my mother's unusual name in as a first middle name, by deed poll, as that 'dilutes' the blandness of the middle name she has. I'm delighted and wish we'd done this in the first place. My dad will be pleased too (mum's dead now) and dh is happy enough as he won't have to tell anyone on his side (they'd think it odd, not usual, peculiar).

I have the most common first name for 70s girls and a reasonably common maiden name so was always glad to have a slightly different middle name (my sister got given Louise)
DD has late MILs name for hers, nothing unusual, I hope she doesn't mind it