Using family name as the middle name?

[ai38]

We have a first name for our DC1 that we love but we are still unsure what to do about her surname as DH and I have different last names (it isn't customary in our home country for women to change their maiden name after marriage).

One option is to use a double-barrelled last name but I am a bit hesitant as we both have non-English last names and putting them together will create quite a long (15 letters) and unfamiliar name (for English speakers) which she might end up hating later in life.

Will it be strange if we use my family name as DD's middle name and to have my DH's surname as the last name? So her full name would be first name+ middle name (my surname)+ Last name (DH Surname).

I am asking because I have always seen middle names to be first names and not family names. My foreign-looking family name doesn't look like a first name at all and I don't want us to do something which would later make her the odd one out at school, work, etc in this country.

Any other ideas or suggestions are also welcome.

Me & DP have different last names (i wouldn't be changing mine). I didn't want to double barrel and my surname is my DS middle name and he shares his dads last name. We like it
If I had a daughter I would continue it. Having done several family tree's it seems like it is not uncommon.

It's usually best for a child to have his or her mother's surname.

Firstname Parent2surname Parent1surname is fine, the child will be Firstname Parent1surname most of the time.

Yes, your idea is very acceptable and quite usual.

We did it for all our kids. It doesn't raise an eyebrow, and they like having an extra middle name. We did it in this order: Firstname, Secondname, Mysurname, DHsurname.

I have Brazilian and Portuguese friends in Britain and they take both parents paternal family names. This can result in long double barrelled last names like the racing driver Ayrton Senna Da Silva. They have never had issues beyond occasionally having to spell their last names and one of their double last names has 16 letters.

It is not uncommon though for people to have their mother’s last name as a middle name either. My brother, father, grandfather, grandmother and mother in law all have a last name as their middle name in my immediate family. I know earlier generations did the same thing too which resulted in the middle names of Holland and Mealmaker amongst others.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

What do you think about giving her both of our surnames but without a hyphen so that she has a two part surname?

Is that common too or will the first surname usually be treated like a middle name?

"What do you think about giving her both of our surnames but without a hyphen so that she has a two part surname?"

I think that sounds perfectly fine!
It's quite common where I'm from (not UK). I don't know what is most common in the UK.

People's perception of it might depend on the names.
I learned on this board that Rose can be a surname. I'm mostly used to it as a first name. So if I read the name "Alice Rose Smith", I would probably guess that Smith is her only surname.
But if she is called "Alice Robinson Smith", I would think that she has two surnames.