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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Original poster

Do middle names cause issues for children?

28 replies

diddle · 03/02/2009 22:11

we so far have had family names for our boys and have baby number 3 on the way. i'd love to name it after my grandad - Wilfred for a middle name, but what are your opinions? do middle names be a cause for teasing or embarrassment?
i don't have one, so wouldn't know.

OP posts:

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snice · 03/02/2009 22:13

Only if they go with the fore and surnames to make inadvertant comedy initials (BUM, TIT etc)

CandleQueen · 03/02/2009 22:15

Never had a problem with my middle names. I have two middle names (after my grandmothers) and I have always enjoyed explaining them when asked why I have two.
DS1 has one middle name and DS2 has two. If DC3 (yet to be conceived!) is a girl, she is already fully named with 2 middle names.

Original poster

diddle · 03/02/2009 22:18

but are they middle names that are old fashioned or have aged well?

OP posts:

VeryAnnieMary · 04/02/2009 12:54

My middle name is my godmother's name and until two years ago (blush) I thought this was how people chose middle names. My whole name is quite plain so the middle initial helps a little bit to distinguish me from the hoards of other me's!

Middle-naming after someone is nice, I think.

At graduation, my plain-named pals and I did have a giggle at the full names/middle names of the posh students graduating while silently thanking our lower middle class plain-nameness. Then I married a comedy-family-middle-name type (and - hee hee - chose to use full names during our marriage ceremony...) Our potential DSs are to be shafted with it too but I have come to terms with this as I can see the comedy value!

PuppyMonkey · 04/02/2009 12:58

IME you only ever tell other people your middle name about half a dozen times in your entire life, so I don't see that it makes that much difference!

maretta · 04/02/2009 12:58

Personally I like an unusual middle name, especially named after someone, an old family name. It's good when they have a bit of a story.

I wouldn't worry about Wilfred. I think it's becoming quite a popular first name. There are a few Wilfies about.

Lemontart · 04/02/2009 13:02

I like middle names We chose first names that DH and I loved and then picked longstanding family names (we also liked) to go in the middle. Both our DDs love to hear about how we chose their names and all about their namesakes, look at old photos of them etc. Nice link with their ancestors. Often just before they go to sleep and after their story, they will say "mummy, please tell me about how I got my name again, pleeeeese..."

MrsY · 04/02/2009 14:47

My middle name is Frederika. When mum was pg with me, my grandmother was diagnosed with leukemia and she chose the name for her brother and father (obviously both Frederick's). She died before I was born, and it's really my only link to her - sort of a before I was born memory...

Occasionally it gets raised eyebrows, but when I explain it, people seem to melt...

ForeverOptimistic · 04/02/2009 14:49

Wilfred is lovely. There are a couple of Wilfreds at ds's school.

Fimbo · 04/02/2009 14:51

My dd has two middle names, she likes the first as it is after my mum, the second which is dh's mum's maiden name and dh's own middle name (he insisted) she loathes. If anyone ever asks her she only says her first middle name.

ladyjuliafish · 04/02/2009 14:53

Wilfred is quite popular now. I wouldn't worry about teasing unless it made teaseworthy initials or sounded funny when you said his whole name.

namehelp · 04/02/2009 15:49

I wouldn't say middle names cause embarrassment to children at school. Most people don't know what each others middle names are.
I have a friend who's two middle names are very embarrassing to her. One is a boys name the other sounds like a body part that you really wouldn't want in your name. But no one at school knew and she only told me as an adult.

cory · 04/02/2009 15:51

Dd and ds have two middle names each, one from each side of the family. My side is foreign, dh's side is oldfashioned. Never been subject for teasing.

sarah293 · 04/02/2009 15:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

CandleQueen · 04/02/2009 21:25

Diddle, my middle names are old fashioned but not newly-fashionable old fashioned IYKWIM.
June Elise
(Grandma was actually Elsie, but M&D thought June was cruel enough and swapped some letters around to make Elise) I love my names.

MrsTittleMouse · 04/02/2009 21:31

I was a bit neurotic about choosing names, and veto'd a couple of DH's suggestions because I wanted our DDs to be able to use their middle names as their names if they happened to hate the first name that we gave them. To be honest though, I don't know the middle names of most people that I know, and as long as the initials aren't silly, I think that a middle name is far less of an issue than a first name.

ramonaquimby · 04/02/2009 21:35

As the only child out of 4 that does NOT have a family middle name......if you've done it for one, I'd do it for the rest as well. Still a bit that I don't have family middle name like rest. Perhaps a bit juvenile of me.....but even so!

CandleQueen · 04/02/2009 21:36

I concur MrsTittle.
DS2 has an unusual first name (well, unusual here in Sussex, ten a penny in Wales!) so he has two "normal" names to choose from if he grows up disliking our first choice.

justneedsomesleep · 04/02/2009 21:37

i am a child of 3 without a middle name - why? why not me too?

so both my dc have middle names.

philopastry · 04/02/2009 21:40

one of my Alpha male BILs has got Maria as HIS middle name - don't ask how this happened, it is a huge catholic family of all boys and maybe my MIL just had to use one of her fave girls names in the end?! He managed to keep it a secret until his wedding...there wasn't a dry eye in the house!!

jasper · 04/02/2009 21:41

I just don'tget middle names at all and none of my kids have them.
In my family of 4 kids one of us had one, the other 3 did not. Noone cared either way but yes, kids did laugh at the one with the middle name.

Kids will make fun of anything or nothing

piscesmoon · 04/02/2009 21:51

I feel hard done by because I haven't got a middle name! I think it is nice to have one that has family connections.

christywhisty · 04/02/2009 22:53

I always wished I had a middle name as well

edam · 04/02/2009 22:57

I awarded myself a second 'middle' name when I was at school, in order to score maximum points in Grandmother's Footsteps.

But it was rather nice having two!

Ds has two middles as well, after both grandads. Dh's idea - think it's rather lovely (although one of them is NOT a name I'd have chosen, tbh).

Tinker · 04/02/2009 23:00

I had the piss taken out of me for mine but I love it now (and it's really quite a popular now) Stick to your guns

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