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 really important to me. It's a family surname which is also quite unusual and attractive - feels a much more integral part of my identity than my surname. My grandmother, aunt and cousin all have it as a middle name - it kind of goes to the firstborn daughter I guess. I didn't give it to my daughter and now really regret it.

Mine was my paternal Grandma’s middle name so I really like it, even though it’s old fashioned

I like mine. I have two. Although they are filler type names, I like them because they flow well, one is a family name and the other is a name my Dad wanted as a first name but Mum vetoed. I like my actual first name more than either middle name.

I like mine but don't really use it. It's my mum's name and I like that connection. My DC all have family middle names although they are rarely used.

I like mine - it’s a one-syllable name, and it’s my maternal grandmother’s name. It’s the French spelling of the more common Anglo variety, although we are Anglo through and through.

I was given it in the 70s, and I admit - I do like the fact that it isn’t Louise, Jane, Sarah or Clare!

My first name is my paternal grandmother’s name, and it was super old lady when I was given it in the 70s. No-one was called it back then, and I’ve never met another person my age with it.

The obituaries were full of my first name, and my parents knew they were taking a bit of a risk using it, but really wanted to honour both their Mums, especially as my Dad’s mum died when he was just 19.

The idea was, if I hated my old-last first name that much, I could opt for my simpler middle name.

And I admit - I didn’t really love it growing up. Everyone else was called Jennifer, Nicola, Karen, Joanne, Melanie, Rachel, Lisa, etc.

Now my first name - and its variations - is so popular, people are over it.

Mid 70s here and was assigned the middle name Louise from the approved list! It's fine, not something I've ever thought about. I chose my own confirmation name which was very much of the time too.

I like mine - it's my grandmother's name, and a classic that's not much used at the moment. I also like the idea of using the middle space for a name that's a bit "out there" - I have a childhood friend whose middle name is Dinali after the National Park in Alaska, where her parents first met. On the flip side, a very classic middle name with a lot of diminutives (Alexander/Alexandra, Catherine, Elizabeth, WIlliam) is nice with a trendier or more limited first name.

I'm curious about the "regulation" 70s/80s middle names. I recognise the ones people have mentioned: Anne, Jane, Louise, Rose. I lived in the USA as a child (late '70s to mid '80s) and a crazy number of girls I knew had the middle name Marie - was that also popular in the UK?

Wow, five pages of replies! Thanks everyone

I like a middle name.

As for my own, I grew up being told that my middle name was after both my grandmothers, who had same name. I always liked it even though my mother told me she hated it and only included it because her mother in law insisted.

Anyway years later I discovered that while I was baptised with both names, legally they didn't actually give me a middle name.

My mother is claiming ignorance but I know that she chose my first name in a fit of temper after a huge fight with her mother in law. Mother in law rang the local priest telling him not to baptise me with such a strange name so my mother had her priest friend do it on the sly. My uncle changed his daughter's name a year previously because of pressure from this same grandmother so she had form and I reckon my mother had enough of her and deliberately omitted the middle name as a result.

Anyway I was surprised how I felt a bit robbed when I discovered that I don't actually have a middle name! I guess I do in the eyes of the Catholic church but I'm an atheist now so it doesn't really count.

I love my middle name. It is much nicer than my quite boring ‘80s first name. My middle name is pretty, elegant and more popular these days than it was when I was born.

I also have one of the standard 70s filler names, think it's dull and pointless, and never think of it from one year to another. My kids have family names as middle names though; one is one that I don't massively like but it's DH's grandparent so fair dos.

Can I add that almost all girls born in 1977 surely got Elizabeth as a middle name, to celebrate the Silver Jubilee?

Mine is one of the classic 70/early 80's filler names mentioned.

DS is my brother/FIL (they have have same name)

DD's both have names I like but have no meaning. Wish I'd used my mum's name for one of them to be honest.... she died recently and it's a big regret of mine.

don't care about it much.
it's a Hungarian name that can't be translated so it's pretty useless in England.

but the initials of my 3 names are quite good together so it's alright

Meh .

But is a family name.

What can you do

True! And how often do you ever use it anyway?

Mine is Mary, same as 95% of Irish girls born in my generation. I neither like it or dislike it. I think about it so rarely that I feel disconnected from it.

My DS goes to a Catholic school and I was amazed that virtually half the girls had the middle name "Mary".

My mum's middle name is also Mary sandwiched between a very Irish Catholic first name and surname. She hated it and instead gave my sister and me two of the very boring and not very Catholic middle names mentioned up the thread!

Thanks, everyone.

I noticed MirandaBlu asked about Marie. I would say that Marie was in no way unusual as a middle name, but not in the same league as Jane, Louise, Cla(i)re and Ann(e), in terms of popularity. Maybe I'm wrong though.

This generation all seem to have Rose, Mae / May or Grace.

Thanks everyone. I've enjoyed the thread.

Can I add that almost all girls born in 1977 surely got Elizabeth as a middle name, to celebrate the Silver Jubilee?

My sister didn't, she got Clare. Her first name was very unusual for the time - nobody could ever buy her anything with it printed on - but it's popular now, there are 2 girls with that name in DS's class.

@CeaselessWatcher

Can I add that almost all girls born in 1977 surely got Elizabeth as a middle name, to celebrate the Silver Jubilee?

My sister didn't, she got Clare. Her first name was very unusual for the time - nobody could ever buy her anything with it printed on - but it's popular now, there are 2 girls with that name in DS's class.

My school year was 76/77 births and maybe a third, getting on for half of the middle names were “Louise”. It was endemic.

I think it definitely adds a nice touch, esp if you're stuck for a middle name!

Thanks everyone