5/6 middle names!

[ChynaDoll2006]

Our baby will be of 6 cultural heritages and would like to honour them all in his/her name (+ honouring one more culture that is important to us).

Do you think it would be ridiculous to have 5/6 middle names? I was thinking I could try to use fewer names, with some having relevance in one or more cultures. But really none of the cultures overlap except Jamaican and English!

My brother has four middle names and he loves it, and uses them all as much as he can.

Give him how ever many names you like. He'll use however many he wants and ignore any he doesn't want.

I think that is waaay too much. My DS has 2 middle names and a double barrelled surname. It is too long and most people agree! Second time around with DD, she just got the 1 middle name with the double barrelled surname.

For a start, you can cut down on the number of names by choosing a name of celtic origin (that'll sort the Scottish and Welsh out), Caribbean names (for your St Lucian and Jamaican heritages) are rarely all that different from either American or English names, in fact, though I myself am half west indian, I am struggling to think of any names that are exclusively 'caribbean', never mind specific to any one island.

Does your surname already indicate a particular culture? That would mean with a first name and surname of your list, one name of celtic origin and one from the caribbean/african heritage, your DC would have just 4 names in total - far easier...

though trying to spell/pronounce a full name that included swahili/Ghanaian, celtic, chinese and caribbean would be interesting...except for the caribean, not exactly phonetic are they......

both my dds have 2 middle names and i often muddle them up. my eldest is 4 and i still have to actively think about what order her names go in!

Don't do it, unless you want a permanant headache. Also, do you want more than one child - cos you might end up feeling you've cheated dc2 if you don't do the same for him/her, and then you'd have 14 names to remember (in order!) for only two kids! And heaven help you if you have a 3rd!

2 middle names maximum, any more and you are silly and a bit mean

My friend's name is Hannah.

She has a middle name for each of the letters of her name. So:

Hannah Alice Naomi Natalie...you get the picture.

They don't all fit on her passpport

My children both have 3 middle names, so five names all in all. Our patterns is:

First name we picked because we liked
Second name after someone we admired from 'black history'
Third & fourth name after members of our family, so honour our mixed heritage
Surname.

they just about fit on their passports!

Not really ridiculous. They don't use all the names all the time. usually the first middle name is the only one that gets used on forms etc.

...and far better than the 'I have no imagination' Rose/Grace/May/Mae

My kids have loads of names too.

Well DD and DS1 have the normal amount.

Then DS2 came along. He arrived ready named with 3 and when we offically adopted him we added two more so he has 5.
DS3 has 4
Soon to be DC5 is likely to have at least 4 too.

He may have more because I very much doubt I will have anymore kids so have to use up all the ones I havnt got round to yet.

I would think that 5 or 6 middle names would be a bit of a nuisance for the child growing up as others have said with forms etc. And when they get married some poor soul is going to have to recite them all without making a mistake.....

Oh, blimey, if I honoured evey cultural heritage of my children they would probably have at least 10 names.

I sttled for them having an Enlgish first name, an Irish surname, and no more than 2 middle names...which I just liked.

Can't you just gieve them a copy of the family tree?

life is too short to not name your child what YOU would like to - my best friend is flemish and has 6 or 7 middle names and its never been a problem, she never complained about it or anything, i always thought it was intriguing! think of it this way - will u have regrets if you dont? or regrets if you do? good luck