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.

Mine is after a family member but she died many years before I was born so I feel no connection to her. I never really use it or think about it. I think my first name is much prettier and nicer than my middle name. It's a fine name, I just prefer my first name.

DH has loads of middle names. His first name is the same as his dad's so he uses one of his middle names, always has done. The others just seem to exist to cause trouble on forms (he runs out of space). The middle name he uses is nicer than his first name IMO.

Chose DS1's because it was the boys' name I always liked but also happened to be XP's name and I didn't want to name him directly after his dad. It would have suited him but it's fine as a middle name.

Chose DS2's after the family name that DH and his dad share. DH wanted to do this as a passive aggressive way to show his parents how he thought you should name a DS after their father but unfortunately FIL passed away while I was pregnant so he got it for that reason as well. He has a second middle name after DH's friend who died suddenly the year before. Coincidentally his initials spell a word. I don't especially love either middle name as a name. They are OK, but they are quite boring and slightly old fashioned. I wouldn't have chosen either as a first name.

Chose DS3's because it was a name we both liked but felt was a bit too "unusual" for a first name (I would have been happy using it but was happier with the more common name we have picked). It has a really nice connotation, helps his full name flow nicely and makes his initials also spell a word, like DS2! But it doesn't have a special meaning beyond that.

Both DS2 and DS3 have quite common (top 5) names whereas their middle names are not common for their age group so if they get really fed up of being "yet another Dave" they do have options.

I don't have one and I always felt sort of left out.

I'm thinking of doing what my ex-husband did and gave himself one at age 30.

I think I'll have my maiden name as my middle name.

Double barrel names of my GM and GGM..
To me very boring and old fashioned.
Both names now very popular!

It's the name a uses every day so I rather like it. Though it is a bit of a pain when signing proper documents etc. That I have to remember to use my first name 😊

I have no middle name and a short first name - but it wasn't such a thing then

Mine in combination with my first name marks me out as the child of very devout Catholics. I doubt any Irish baby has been given the name for years now. My sisters got the same middle name. It was also the middle name of my grandfather.

I decided the MN went very nicely with DD4's first name, so she has it as her middle name too. It sounds different with her first name, far less ostentatiously religious. The rest of my DCs have middle names that mark them out as middle class, possibly RC, probably born in the 1990s, though all their names, first and middle, are family names. Just not the one I got lumbered with.

I was born in the 70s.
I dont have the regulation filler middle name, but I do have a (nice) middle name that starts with one of the regulation letters.
Eg my name could be sarah.
So people expect me to be sarah jane.
But I am sarah Jennifer.
I have had people fill in "jane" for me, without even asking my middle name.

I think most of the Sarahs I know are Sarah Jane. I can only think of one who has a non-standard middle name.
Most of the Sallys are Sally Anne. There's one whose middle name I don't know so it could well be Anne.
Most of the Emmas are Emma Louise or Emma Jane.
Most of the Lauras are Laura Jane.

@BarbaraPapa

I was born in the 70s when girls' middle names were still being rationed after the war and people could only choose from Louise, Jane, Clare or Anne.

Yeah, I am also a 70s vintage and mine is similarly boring.

I’m eternally grateful that my dad gave me a decent first name, though. The dull middle name was my mum’s choice for a first name but she lost, thank goodness.

I have a common, ten-a-penny first name and a very uncommon middle name. My dad won the order of the two names. How I wish my mum had won!

I love mine, I gave it dd as her middle name too.

I love mine, DDs first name is similar to my middle name and her middle name is also a family name, which she likes. DS middle name links to his Grandad (still going string in his 90s) it's lovely to have links between them.

*strong!

Its a bit plain. Id prefer something else

I love mine, and use it online. I prefer it to my first name, and wish I'd switched to using it when I moved to my current city. It's a family name, and we didn't pass it on to DD, but she uses it anyway.

I hate both my first and middle names so I don’t even have that to use as an alternative.
I was born in 1969 and my parents gave me the standard girl names of the time, they said that it was so that I wouldn’t stand out

I hate my middle name, it's so blah. I'm glad my mum got to pick my first name as my dads choice of middle name is crap. I've given my dc middle names with meaning and they both love theirs.

@BarbaraPapa

It never enters my head. I use it very rarely. As a grown up, you just don't unless you're filling in a form.

I actually like my middle name more than my (extremely dull) first name. I routinely use my full name professionally (it’s normal to do this in my profession). The “it doesn’t matter what the middle name is - nobody uses it” threads make me nervous!

I like mine. I wished it was my first name for a long time. But now I prefer my first name, but like the way they sound together.

I guess they are a bit of a weird thing. But I enjoyed picking a first and middle name that sounded nice together when I had my two.

I also LOVE finding out others middle names. Sometimes they are so random. I often call friends by their full names. Actually, both my children have introduced themselves by their full names on multiple occasions. Ds said it when asked his name at his yr r settling in sessions. Was so cute

I'm adopted and it's the name my birth mother picked for me.

I love mine even though it's never used!

I am named after my paternal aunt who passed away before I was born. Due to this connection, I like the name.

The name itself is very old-fashioned out of favour in Scandinavia (where I am from) think equivalent to Mavis or Irene and if I look at it that way I dislike it. The family connection is strong though and was why when we gave our children middlenames we picked family relations. I wanted them to love their connection

I really hate mine. It's absolutely the ultimate 70s filler middle name (my sister got the other one ).
What I think is interesting is that all my siblings and I have gone for two middle names for our children and names that are very meaningful to us. Not a May/Rose/Grace/James in sight!