When did Rose become THE middle name?

[Sophcas7]

Rose itself is obviously a very old classic flower name which had its peak in the Victorian era but its use has a middle name seems to have only became ubiquitous in the last 25 years or so.

I was born in the 70s and in my generation most of our middle names were something along the lines of Ann, Elizabeth, Jane, Lynn. The rose middle name trend seems relatively newer to me.

I worked as a midwife in the early 2000s from 2001-2005 and I can’t even tell you how many parents chose “Emily Rose” and other popular names with Rose.

I’m not actually sure if it’s chosen as much any more because mae and grace seem to be getting a lot more common too and I may be wrong but I feel like the rose middle name trend was never popular before the 90s.

There will be a few exceptions obviously, I’m sure there were some considering rose is an old name but possibly just not as many as there have been the past 2 decades.

My gran was Violet Rose and she was born in 1936

Rose and May/Mae/Mai are very common middle names amongst my DDs age group - they are early 20s.
Louise/Jane/Claire seems common amongst my age group - 40s

Beautiful name i know a young Violet Rose.

My teen dd is Something Rose, Rose as her middle name. I honestly didn’t know it was popular at all until I saw it on MN

I still wouldn’t change it, though

It's popular because it's single syllable and single syllable names work with many first names. And it's popular because it has strong vowel, and doesn't start or end in something that might rhyme or run into. Like A- starting middle names do not go with -a ending first names because then it's hard to say. Also, people possibly want to avoid alliteration, or unfortunate initials and R fits perfectly.

It's popular because it's lovely as most popular names tend to be. Having a name that most people like is not a disadvantage.

Each generation seems drawn to particular middle names I agree and it seems to often be one syllable ones, as for some reason people seem to think they flow better (Louise, Elizabeth and Marie of the past aside).

For the one- syllable ones it was often Ann/e, Jane and Claire in previous generations and as those have become Mum/Grandma names instead, parents have looked further back to one syllable Great-grandparents names (the hundred year naming rule) - so now Rose, May and Grace have become ubiquitous (and James for boys, although I wouldn’t be surprised if George is also well used).

Not sure what parents in another few years will go for - I wonder if it will be Faye or Rae instead of May, Faith or Hope instead of Grace and maybe Eve instead of Rose (or they’ll brave the 2 syllable and use Lily or Daisy). We certainly seem to be seeing more girls with Rae as a middle name already.

Princess Margaret Rose was born in 1930. I expect that started a bit of a fashion.

Grace as well. Both similar in terms of meaning, short length. They both 'close' longer first names quite nicely.

I love both as first names but would never use either of them as middle names.

I love Rose as a name, but wasn’t aware of it being a common middle name when we had our daughters in 1997 and 1999.

Daughter 2 nearly had Rose as a middle name. We were considering two first name/middle name combinations and the other one won. I like Rose better than the middle name we went with, but it didn’t sound as good with the first name we picked.

If we’d had a third daughter, she would have had Rose as a middle name.

It goes well with the popular vowel heavy first names.

I go by my middle name, Rose, and I’m 57.
Yorkshire connections. I hated it when I was a child, too old-fashioned, but I’ve grown into it. People remember it and the Rose West association hasn’t stuck! My first name is very “vowelly” as a PP said.

In my class there were also Rosemary (x2) Roisín and Romy, so whenever the teacher said “Ro…” five heads went down!
It’s a classic but maybe it’s popular now because of Titanic or Downton Abbey.

I used to know an Elizabeth Rose when I was at school. This was early 2000s.

Most girls at school had the middle name Marie or Louise. I felt rather left out as mine was my great grandma's first name

My DD was born in 2010 and loads of girls in her NCT co-hort and in her class have either Rose or May as a second name.

'Titanic' has a lot to answer for.

I didn't realise it was that popular. My niece's middle name is Rose because she was named after our mum, who was born in the 60s, who was in turn named after her mum. I think it's a kind of 'ever present' name in some form. Rose, Rosemary, Rosalie, Roseanne, so I think it's normal to shorten it to Rose for a middle name in that context. It's fairly common in other languages as well, I've met a few Roisins in my life.

Think of a really huge movie or musical or song from today, and when the teen girls of today become mothers in ten to fifteen years' time, look at the popular names.

I have a theory that the name Olivia became popular from the mid 90s on because of 'Grease' in the early 80s.

Lots of Rumis and Miras coming right up 😅

My Mum is over 80 & it’s her middle name. I always assumed it was a royal connection as my Granny was an ardent royalist.
(Granny actually looked like Wallace Simpson in her youth & made her own clothes, she was phenomenally stylish & talented, but sadly WW2 & parenthood put an end to any career ambitions.)

I love the name mai rose

My daughter is Lucy Rose and is 14- I love the Rose 🌹 it’s my favourite flower, was my wedding flower and I guess I just really liked it for a middle name for my daughter. I think Lucy Rose is nice .

Just came on to say this…

I work with children and honestly every girl seems to be a ‘something’ Rose/May/Grace.

Her best friend the same age is called Charlotte Grace 🤣🤣

That’s a beautiful name.