What do you think of double middle names in persons name?

[GoldenRosebee]

I'm planning to use double middle name for my potential baby (TTC), but I fancy using maybe even three middle name (like first name then middle middle middle). What would you think of that? I know middle names are rarely used.
I have family to honor, but I don't fancy their names, so these names might not be family names.

edit: I don't necessary have anything against using few names of my family.

I think 3 is too many. Two can sometimes work, depending on the names.

My brother has two. I have one. I think you can have as many as you want as long as you’re not expecting them to go by all four names.

The only issue there might be if your child has to fill in forms with all their names & can’t fit them all in.

If you’re doing multiple names then watch out that the initials don’t spell anything!

my dc both have 2 partly for flow/sound reasons but also because myself and their dad both had a person to name after. I think 3 would be tricky on things like forms though depending on the length of them.

I've got two middle names. I find the whole name thing really tiresome. I have 3 names , I'm known by my middle name but for official documents I have to use my first name or when full name required all three. It's an annoying PIA. Thankfully no weird spellings which would have made it even worse.

My daughter has two - I kind of wish she didn’t honestly as I think it’s a bit unnecessary and suspect she’ll be annoyed having to fill them all in on forms - however the additional one was to honour a family member who died just before she was born, it was important to my husband so I felt like I had to go with it.

Her name still sounds lovely, they do all work well together, it’s just a bit ‘much’ for me so I suspect in answer to your question I think multiple middle names are a bit OTT but that somehow didn’t stop us giving our daughter two!

My best friend has 2 middle names and has done the same with her kids. I don’t know anyone with 3 middle names though!

My kids have two middle names- they’re adopted, so we wanted to keep something original in there. We were advised to change their first names as they were highly identifiable.

TBH though, they’ve both dropped the second one.

I have 2 middle names and have always found it a bit of an unnecessary nuisance form filling tbh. So I wouldn't do that to a child

Be cautious of using up all the names you like on one child. If you have more than one then you’ll be struggling to think of more names. One middle name is good, two a bit much, three verging on ridiculous imo.

I've never really thought about it.

I once met an Italian bloke who had 8 names. He said their tradition was to give the first child 8 names, second child got 7 names, and so on. Dunno what happens to child number 9.

My now adult children have two middle names each. They are honouring family members and they both like it very much. They used to love hearing about the people they were named after when they were little

DS has two, just because we liked them. DH has two as well so I suppose it’s also partly keeping up the family tradition. Three feels unwieldy but tbh, how often do people use all of their names? I doubt it would raise an eyebrow day to day.

Two middle names is not unusual at all. Three might raise an eyebrow if you're not royalty/nobility but no real reason not to. As you say middle names are rarely used so it's rarely going to come up as a talking point.

I have one middle name. My husband has two and I'm jealous haha. We have our kids two, partly as we have quite different taste in names and it took us ages to pick first names we agreed on, so we chose a middle name each.

Some things to think about:
Initials - make sure they don't make any weird/rude acronyms.
Form filling - is it going to take them ages?
Length of names - e.g. My daughter has a four syllable first name and a four syllable first middle name so we chose a single syllable second middle name as it was enough of a mouthful already.
Air travel - some airlines/companies don't have enough space to put the full name on online bookings. We used to have to make Tui bookings over the phone for this reason. (Admittedly our kids also have both our surnames too do they actually have 5 names.)
Ditto boarding passes especially airlines that put the middle names on. (United and Air France are the ones I can think of.) We get stopped and asked why the BP name doesn't match the passport name. They always accept the "too long" explanation but it's a bit of a pain and I always have a panicked moment thinking what if they deny boarding?

I don't really think much of it because I rarely know people's middle names.

My husband has two middle names. While honouring his grandfather and uncle was a lovely idea, it is an absolute pain on e.g. immigration forms, banking, employment docs, etc. They never fit on the forms properly and even if he tries just to use the first one then it leads to confusion and mix ups. Basically once it’s on your birth certificate, it will be on your passport, which then means you wind up with them on your bank account, etc.

I don’t think it’s a big deal, they are so rarely used. I have one, it has no connection to anything.

Our children have two:

• One for each grandfather (last DS got DH name as his middle)
• they all have my surname as a second middle name. I considered double barrelled but we all have foreign names anyway and my surname was the biggest spelling ballache over the phone after spelling first name (less arduous) so I wanted it documented and included but not necessarily for everyday life.

Oh and any girls would have been the same but My Grandma, My surname and any subsequent paternal and maternal

I have South American inlaws whose kids all have 3 middle names to respect both sides of their heritage. No one ever thinks of anything but their first and last names though.

My kids have my maiden name as a second middle name (as do I and my husband). They sounded ridiculous double barrelled because they're both long names, but I wanted a nod to my family

Well I'm not sure about form filling as I have 4?! My biological fathers full name🙈 and then a middle name my mother chose for me. Interestingly his name is on my Nat Insurance card and at my GP surgery but not on my passport etc. So I'm not sure what happened there

But for all practical purposes I just go by First name - Mothers chosen middle - Surname and have all of my life.

I've no idea where my birth certificate is so will have to send for a copy and see.

My sisters and I all have two middle names and my brother has three… for me, three is a bit of a mouthful even though we have a very short surname. I like the rhythms of our names together and for me names definitely have to go together to be used together. To be honest though, it’s not something that comes up or has any impact the vast majority of the time - only when there isn’t enough space on a form. For my own kids, I gave them two chosen names and they have my husband and my family names due to the naming traditions in my husband’s country so effectively they have four names / the same number of names as me.

I had something similar - when I got my national insurance card it had a different name than the name i used and it was because my parents had given me one name when I was born and then changed their minds and changed my name. I’m not sure if it was just from the hospital or when they first registered me (they gave me one name, then another and then a third one and it was the first name given that was on my national insurance card and the third was on my passport…) but they did change my name on my birth certificate after registering my name initially and so everything else showed the name I use now. I suspect my mum changed my name at the GP, but not with the national insurance place (no idea where they get that from?). It was easily fixed though, I just sent my amended / final birth certificate in. I would think the name on your birth certificate would be the name on your passport as you’re normally expected to send birth certificate in with first passport application.

I’m surprised by the form filling comments as it’s surely only an extra word or two. How odd to use a personal dislike of writing as something that influences somebody else’s name.

I have two middle names, as does DH. It very much the norm in my circles and most forms are electronic these days anyway.

3 is too many, 2 is ok as long as they’re not too long!