Have the middle names Mae/May, Rose & Grace been cheapened by the double barrelling name trend?

[Chaineslay6]

They seem to be genuinely hated on here, I understand they have been very common middle names for the past 30 years but they are lovely imo that’s why they are so popular but I understand they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.

i think a lot to do with the hate is because they are used in a very trendy way a lot of the time. Rose especially has become quite a cliche, like Lily-rose, Ava-rose, Isla-Rose and people on mumsnet think hyphenated names are “low class”.

Why are they so hated on here, is it because of how common they are? Too trendy? I’m genuinely curious

They are soooooo boring. Every other girl has one of them as a middle name or half of a hyphenated name.

I think the hate is becasue of how overused they are and that they are just there to look pretty. My niece is an Emily Rose born in 2003 and it was chosen because it sounded nice and on trend at the time. I remember thinking it was nice at the time tho because I hadn’t known one but now it’s a very cliche name.

I think most of the time rose, grace and Mae are chosen for aesthetic reasons.

I think so yes , just so unoriginal .
There are so many beautiful names ,i'm not talking about the 'unique' ones ,i don't understand why you would want to give your new born a name that so many other kids will also be named.

I hate the double barelled trend but do like Rose and May (not Mae) as middle names. Grace is a bit meh and overused

They are boring because of overuse.
They are very popular as hyphenated names.
I don't like hyphenated names.

Yes, I think there are just so many of them. Our DD who was born in 2005 has the middle name Rose- her first name is also one that was very popular around that time. We didn’t realise how popular they were at the time, but I don’t regret choosing them. We chose Rose as it is a family name and it sounds really nice with the first name.

To me, middle names aren’t super important- probably because I haven’t got one and I never find out what most people’s middle names are- even people I know pretty well, so I have always seen them as a bit irrelevant or really just personal to the individual they belong to. My mum had two middle names and disowned one of them as she hated it- so I suppose I see them as non-essential.

Rose, Grace and May are the modern Louise, Marie and Jane.

I think some people aren’t keen on names that are going to make it easier to guess your generation, if people do happen to find out what your middle name is. I wouldn’t have used Marie, Louise, Claire or Jane 40 years ago for a middle name either for similar reasons (a good third of my female friends at school seemed to have one of those as middle names).

I feel the same to an even greater extent about first name choices - I personally prefer something that feels more timeless. Ironically imo May and Rose do feel fairly timeless, but only as first names (Grace possibly being a bit too popular for that, since it has been quite heavily used as a first name too over the last 30 years).

However that’s assuming you have an alternative middle name choice that you like as much and are trying to decide between the two. Because it’s not the end of the world to have a middle name that gives away your age (or even a first name for that matter) -lots of people do.

Of course with middle names, there’s also the issue that traditionally they were always given to honour family or Godparents etc. So it can also seem a bit odd to some to choose a generic name “that just sounds nice” as it were. But changing times etc.

My eldest has middle name May but then she is 39!

My daughters has two middle names that people described as ‘boring filler names’. It makes me sad as she is named after two very special people: her grandmother and her great grandmother.

I imagine lots of people who chose the same names as middle names are also honouring relatives born around the same time period as they were common first names too.

I’d imagine for a lot of people it comes from having Louise or Anne etc as their middle name and disliking the modern-day equivalent as a result.
Thats the case with me anyway.

They’re overused, unoriginal filler middle names that flow well with most first names.

Agree with a previous poster. I'm of an age where nearly everyone has a middle name 'louise.' It's nothing to hate just a trend at the time. May and rose and all those names will be the same. Not a big deal and I don't think anyone thinks louise is a horrible name just a very 80s name. May rose and Grace will just be very much of their time.

My middle name is one of those and I was born in the 70s.

I prefer all of those as first names - well, Rose and May anyway. I don't like the Mae spelling, and I've never liked Grace at all.

I also like Louise as a first name and think it's such a shame it's always been such a popular middle that it's almost died out as a first name.

I'm intruiged to know what the next generation's 'filler' middle names will be.

Yep massively overused - and I was gutted as one of those names used to be my surname. When I changed it, when I got married, I was determined to use it if I had a DD.
I did have a DD but the name was everywhere so it really put me off!

Because they are just so overused. I work with children and every girl has Rose/May/Grace as middle name or hyphenated with.

They’ve become the equivalent of Jane and Louise.

They’re the magnolia paint of middle names.

There's nothing wrong with that though. All six of them are nice names.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom But they tell you the age of the woman.

Not necessarily.

I was born in the mid 1980s and my cousin has a "-May" name, after our great grandmother May who was born in 1892 and our great aunt May who was born in 1927.

Every generation of women in my family since 1901 has had Louise as a middle name, right down to my toddler DD.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom , that's just your family.
Your great-grandmother may have been Mary on her BC.

No, she was May. I have seen her birth certificate.

It doesn't mean that middle names don't date a person. If they are overused they do, and the first names are usually overused too.

Or Anne in my generation. Sandwich filler names