Middle names

[nessmay]

Growing up it always seemed that people's middle names seemed to be taken from a family memeber (usually parent or grandparent), but the trend now seems to be to just pick whatever name you like. My middle name is May (after my dad's mum, who knew it would now be so popular!) and my sister's is Anne (after my mum's mum).

We are using my mum's name as a middle name but I just wondered how many other people are using a family name and why you've decided this? At work someone recently used the middle name Hilda for her little girl(after her mum) and everyone reacted as if she'd called the child Hitler! Do middle names really matter than much, I only ever use mine on forms?

My sister has no middle name (my dad registered her birth and forgot to put one on the certificate - this was 47 years ago). She's never had the slightest prob with not having one. I sometimes think the only point of having a middle name is so that colleagues/friends can find out about how silly they are at some point and take the piss out of you for them.

My middle name was totally random. My two elder sisters have my mum's first and middle names as their middle names. Luckily for me, she'd run out of horrendous names by the time I was born!

My daughter has a hodge-podge of my two grandmother's names as hers. One was Rose and one was Anne. It's not actually Roseanne though as my husband didn't like it - it's Rowan. We went with the sounds rather than the actual letters, if you see what I mean...

The main purpose of the middle name is to ensure that the childs initials will never form a risible word or acronym. Particularly important choice for girls as their surname may change. Hence the predominance of middle names beginning with J.

PuppyMonkey if we were having a boy the middle name would be Trevor (after my dad). In my head I'm just visualising in 30 years time on my (imaginary) son's wedding day a few sniggers from the congregation when his middle name is read out

We used two middle names, one from each side of the family.

My mum hated her middle names (she had two) so much that she decided she wouldn't give us any and my dad was from a culture who don't use middle names.

DD has my one of mum's and nan's middle name May

and DS has a middle name that is traditional middle name in his famuly.

sorry, that should be traditional in DS's family.

My son has the same middle name as his father & paternal grandfather-although if I didn´t like it he wouldn´t have done!

Daughter has my grandmother´s middle name.

I don´t have one but have always wished I had.
Now wondering how easy it would be to take on my maiden name as a middle name.

Mine is the name of my mother's favourite aunt, Frances.
My daughters have Rose after my mother, and Alice after my Gran.
My sister, a child of the early 70s, has the omnipresent Louise! Although, in her case, named after another of my mother's (many) aunts.

DD's had my mother's name as middle name, if we had other children then the middle names would be grandparents names
it is just our preference don't really see it as 'rule'

I wish I had a middle name

so do I onebadbay

I stuck with family names for both first and middle names -- I have a very large extended family. I tried to pair long and short names, and also aimed for something that tripped easily off the tongue. There are so many names unless you narrow it down somehow, and family names also resulted in no fewer raised eyebrows.

we used my surname as a middle name

and the girls also have a female relatives Christian name as a middle name

I don't have a middle name - haven't suffered or been traumatised by the fact I've never had one. Can't miss what you've never had.

DH doesn't have a middle name either.

DS1 we decided NOT to give him a middle name (yep going against the general trend).

And DS2 will not be getting a middle name either.

I have a middle name - Elizabeth which is my Mum's middle name and was the name of both her grandmothers. My sister has given it to her DD as a middle name.

My sons have 2 middle names each
DS1s are Charles Thomas, which are the names of mine and DPs grandfathers (Thomas also my father, brother and nephew's middle names)

DS2s are Peter James which are my father's first name and DP's father's middle name.

If i ever had a DD her middle name would be Mary after my lovely 92 year old grandma

I think it's lovely to use relatives names as middle names, especially when it bvecomes tradition and besides it gives them such an inordinate amount of pleasure.

I just can't imagine plucking a name out of a hat - what's the point for a middle name???

All family names.

Ooooh, I adore choosing middle names! All the fun of choosing a name without any of the stress of choosing the 'real' name!

My ex didn't have a middle name and I felt sooo sorry for him although I don't think he much cared!

That said, my middle name is pretty boring (Marie). My sister's is May which is now v popular but was chosen because she was born in May and it's a family name.

For DS1 we chose Winston because we think Churchill was a pretty good chap!

We're now in the process of having fun thinking up a boy's middle names for DC2. We're getting nowhere with girl's first names so middle names will have to wait.

I like the idea of using family names but I know it would cause aggro with the non-honoured side of the family...

Our DDs each have two middle names. DD1 has Catherine Isabella, mainly because those are the two main females in Wuthering Heights, but also because we liked them, and DD2 is Christabel (after Pankhurst) Petra (after her uncle Peter who died 3 months before her birth).

DP was very keen to give our children two middle names as apparently it looks better on a cricket scoreboard... I like that they each have big long grand names that sound ace when I am telling them off With both of them I chanted their full names during their pregnancy and birth to soothe myself and now to them to calm them down.

They have the initials MCID and ECPD...they can't be dodgy can they?

Oh, and those of you who want to change your names-it is easy, and free.

Basically, in this country you are allowed to be known as whatever you like, as long as you are not doing it for the purposes of deception. Quite a few places insist that you use the same name with them as you have on your passport/driving licence/whatever though, and want you to prove you are serious about changing your name (ie not doing it because you are drunk or for a bet) so will want some official documentation.

For this you need a certificate, you can make one yourself, I found the wording online, printed it out on nice paper, then I had to sign it with my old name and new name (basically it said that I renounced my old name and promised to be known everywhere by my new name from that date) and get a witness to sign it. The bank etc then accepted that as proof of change of name.

I have been using my new name now for nearly three years with no problem (apart from some relatives being sniffy about it, but I would have had that if I had paid however much it is for a solicitor). In fact I have had more problems with using "Ms" than my actual name!

I think if you are a member of the peerage or something you need to register it somewhere, but for normal people, that method is fine.

Yes, that´s my problem ButterPie-I would have to change passport etc-I don´t want to be known by the-just be able to use it in my signature.

I have the same middle name as my mum, but I haven't passed it on to my daughter as I didn't think it went with her first name. DS1 has the same middle name as DH though.