Why do people bother giving middle names to children?

[Nevada]

I just can't see the point. When would you use them?

its very important for a child development becuase when you say "JIMX CAN'T SPEAK TILL I SAY YOUR FULL NAME PERSONAL PADLOCK"
it comes in very useful as does a confirmation name in this house

Because they want to? Because they want to share a family name that they don't want to give as a Christian name? Becuase they can? What an odd question!

I suspect several of my friends still believe it to be my real middle name too, I got to a point where i was too embarrassed to deny it (i pretended for a number of years)

Same reason as Shimmy.

Although admittedly somehow DS1 doesn't have any names which come from my 'part' of the world - Tafara Yehudi! And even DS's middle name has no bearing on my 'heritage' (well unless you count the fact I went to school in Edinburgh and my brother now lives there) Tongai Scott.

My dad was a George William, but even since before he left school he's been known as Bill. Even by his big sister and their wedding cards were all to Bill and Felicity (although he did apparently say his proper name for the vows )

oh and as others have said - excellent when you're in trouble.

With DS he knows

"Taf"/"Taffy" = everything's fine and dandy
"Tafara" = mum/dad REALLY mean it
"Tafara Yehudi = oops I'm in trouble.

I don't have a middle name and neither does my sister, because my mum is called by her middle name and she thought it was too confusing!!

My three children don't have middle names either, but that's because I wanted to be different!

When you like 2 names very much and can't decide, have them both. Because you want to remember a relative. Because theres a name all the new ones in the family get. Because other people do. Because you want to. etc etc

And your child may HATE their first name and decide to use their middle name when they get older!

And you have somethin substantial to shout when they are playing up.

My dad was always known by his middle name too..there were two boys in the same street who shared the same CHristian and surname so he used his middle name. My MIL uses her middle name as she hates her Christian name. I hated my middle name as a child but now love it and gave it to dd as her middle name.
ds and dh share the same middle name which is a family name (It's a Welsh king) and dh hates it but felt his father would be upset if he didn't follow tradition.

Is it Idwal by any chance?

snap, shimmy and qoq.
So that they can say their name in either country and no-one can say they don't belong.

i gave alana my grans name for her middle as i thought it was a bit old fashiond for her first. its jean and if we had a boy his middle would have been george after dps grandad

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No Glyndwr hmb

Oh I think Glyndwr is rather nice. dad was an Idwal and my mum wanted me to cal ds it! I just couldn't

People in my family (my sister, me, my dad, and now my boys) all have two middle names. The first middle name is a first name, so to speak, and the second is a (family) surname. That way, inside your regular name, you have a second name, both first and last name, you can use.

When I worked (briefly) in market research, I used my two middle names as my name, when introducing myself. Just felt better.

Also, it gives, you an excessive, use of commas. And broken grammer.

hmb,my sister was nearly Blodwyn - my mum won the toss though on that one!

Dh has two middle names because he's a bit posh - the first of them was his uncle's name and is really nice and suits him but the other one is so not his kind of name, I don't see the point. Also his first three names' initials spell RAJ so lots of people assume that's his name, ha ha.

I like middle names tho - we've used family ones - dh's grandfather, plus my parents who are both dead and I like the idea that having those names might make the children ask about the people they've been named after.

galaxy and hmb - my great aunt used to send out lists of acceptable welsh names which included Idwal and various other corkers. I have just used Glyn as ds2's middle name (was my grandfather's name and my dad's middle name).

I haven't got a middle name, my Mum thought my first name and maiden name were quite long enough.
I didn't bother giving my DS's a middle name either(alot of people think thats odd though), in fact I hardly ever use the long version of their first names, only the shortened one.

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2 brothers 1 called Thomas David and one called David Thomas. Now that was weird.

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I love middle names - always want to know people's middle names. often paints a picture of those doing the naming.....