How did you choose your baby's middle name?

[mynameysamey]

How did you choose your baby's middle name?

Did you use a family name? Or think of a name that they could use if they didn't like their first?

DD has two middle names. First is a modern variant of one of my Grandma’s names (had been a contender for first name), and second is one of DH’s Grandma’s names.

Lots of people I know actually use their middle names instead of their first names. So I would definitely choose a middle name you'd be happy for them to swap to in the future.

I also feel it's good to give names which provide a balance. So if you've chosen a short, modern first name then choose a longer, traditional name to give your DC options when they're older.

First child the name flows well, but I wish I’d put up more of a fight for something I wanted, I let DH have his choice as I felt so weak and tired after the birth.
The next ones I used family names and this choice was a better one for me. The names actually mean something.

Dd1 a name we both loved which flowed well with her first name.
Ds his dad’s first name.
Dd2 my middle name.

Our babies all had two middle names

First baby had the feminine version of her dad's middle name plus the name I had wanted to call her (I let her Dad choose her first name as she died before birth).

Second baby's first name was after my brother and his two middle names are after both of his grandfathers.

Third baby's middle names were a family name that runs in our family "Elizabeth" and after my Nanna.

Fourth baby's middle names were both names we liked but felt we couldn't use as first names.

Fifth baby's middle names are after both of her aunties.

Sixth baby's middle names are my husband's first name and my twin brother's name.

We're a bit traditional, so they had one Biblical and one Anglo-Saxon name each - chosen from names we loved.

DS’s middle name we actually chose first but we didn’t want it as his first name. But now it is the name he chooses to go by 🤷‍♀️😂

Same for us. There is no tradition on my side of the family of passing down family names, and I wanted my son to have his own name. So the middle name was just one we liked and that sounds quite nice with the first name. I wouldn't actually have bothered with a middle name at all if it was just up to me - I don't have one, and have never wished I had one - but his dad wanted him to have at least one (he has two).

Family name that happened to be the first name of both our paternal grandfathers

FIL name

DS1 got his dad's middle name, because it goes nicely and I don't hate it. DS2 got a name I love but didn't feel bold enough to have for his first. They both got my maiden name as a middle name too.

I was persuaded to use the unusual name I loved as a middle name. Guess which one is used?
My 4 yr old is going to start reception without being able to respond to her official name.......
She has 2 middle names - the second is the same as my middle name. I have my middle name because the Registrar made a special trip to Neonatal Intensive Care at 5 weeks and 6 days to tell my parents they were about to break the law. They decided to use my mother's name!

Eldest has my maiden name (which can also be a first name... think along the lines of Bryan). Youngest has the name of a much loved aunt who died whilst I was pregnant. She was very supportive of me and as she had no children of her own, I thought it would be a nice way for her memory to live on.

My middle name is a family name. Its my grandmothers middle name and her mother's name, it goes back generations.

Had either DD been a DS, they would have had a middle name that had come down their DF's family.

DD1 has a middle name we liked and that flowed with her first name. DD2 has her DGM's name as her middle name.

Both mine have 2 middle names (greedy)

DS- DH name (which is also a family name), my maiden name (which is also a boy's name)

DD- paternal great grandmother, maternal great grandmother

Ds1 and ds2 have middle names after dh's grandads. With ds3 we got ds1 to pick a girls name and ds2 to pick a boys name of someone who was important to them. Ds4 was diagnosed before birth with disabilities. People were so negative so we chose a middle name that means gift. Ds5's middle name means God has added another.

Oldest, middle name was after one of DH's grandmas who died literally a week or two before I found out I was pregnant.

DS middle name was after my late maternal grandfather - his first name is after husband's late grandfather and we'd agreed we wanted that as first name.

We're Jewish and there is a strong tradition of naming kids after relatives who are no longer with us, so that kind of made it easier.

With my first, both her grandmothers had the same middle name so I used that, as a nod to them both.
With my second his middle name had a special meaning, not any family name.

My family is Welsh and I have a Welsh middle name. I wanted my children to have Welsh middle names too so that they have a name that links to their Welsh heritage. So their middle names are just Welsh names that my husband and I like.

DC1 has grandfathers name, luckily both mine and dh dad share a very common first name.
DC1 picked DC2's middle name

Both granny's names in a portmanteau name. Luckily they're both common middles

MILs first name. I loved her and I loved her name

Middle names are honour spots in our family so my kids have John Joseph (after my two granddads) and Jane Rose (after my husband’s mum and my nanna) as their middles.

@IhaveoflateMy daughter is the sixth girl in the family line to have the name Rose. I think it goes back to an Irish Rose-Anne in the early 1800s and is basically a tradition now 😅

We didn’t know the sex of our baby, throughout the whole pregnancy we could only come up with a boys name we liked. She was a girl, so we gave her a feminine version of the boys name we had liked for a middle name (along the lines of we liked James so her middle name is Jaime, we’ve not given her a boys name!)

Both our boys have family middle names. Our girl is just getting a name we like that was on our list but not a top contender. There aren't many women's middle names in my family and I don't like mine.