Middle name question

[theflyingshadow.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I'm from Israel and here it is very uncommon to find someone with, or give, a middle name. But I see here that many of you like to use 2 or even 3 names for a child, and I was wondering why is that?

I would really appreciate your answers. 

(I'm new, please don't shoot me... ;)  )

Comments

[jesus--suburbia.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_names
Sometimes, a middle name is used because the first name is a family name. For example, Dad is Robert James, and the son is Robert Michael, the son going by Michael, as to not cause confusion, but to still carry on the name in the family. Often there are generations of (for example) Roberts, who only go by their middle name.

Another use is to use the mother/family maiden name as a middle name IE Michael Beckett Smith, Beckett being the mother's maiden name.

The British upper classes are traditionally fond of taking multiple middle names; for example, Princess Michael of Kent was given no fewer than four middle names, as Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz; most of the royal family have three.

But I live in America, and everyone I know has 1 middle name (I think I know a few people with none), and I have a few friends from the UK with 2.

[seksimaggie.livejournal.com]

I don't really know why we have middle names. But now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know a single person who doesn't have one, and it would strike me as very unusual if I met someone without a nickname. I'm interested, I hope someone can explain this one.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

I know several people without middle names.

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

I know a few people without middle names. But it's just the Western Way, I think.

As for 2+ middle names, I have no idea.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

*cough* As members of "the British upper classes" go, someone born in Czechoslovakia to a German and a Hungarian with no connection to the UK until her second marriage at the age of 33 is not a great example. You'd have been better off with William Arthur Philip Louis, Henry Charles Albert David, or Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise...

[jesus--suburbia.livejournal.com]

I copied from wikipedia, WIKIPEDIA IS ALWAYS RIGHT!

lolz

[sarahrose.livejournal.com]

Simply put: it's tradition in some places.

One of my best friends doesn't have a middle name because, well... Technically, when a woman gets married her maiden name is her middle name. So my friend's parents were like "Why bother with a middle name then?" Archaic, I think, but still.

Anyway, she's the only one I know without one, and we've always thought it really odd.

[seksimaggie.livejournal.com]

lol I wasn't doubting their existence, I was just musing on the fact that I don't know any.

[lolzabeth.livejournal.com]

My son has 2 middle names because we wanted to name him after my grandfather and my great grandfather but we didn't like either name as a first name.

I guess for some people they just can't decide on one name or think the names sound nice together.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

Or some people just think it sounds pretty to give a baby more than one name! =)

[eleanorgrace.livejournal.com]

I think your question perfectly confirms my belief that it's weird to give a baby a middle name that just "sounds nice." They should mean something, I think. And I don't necessarily mean that they should mean a lot, ha, but isn't it so weird to say, "someone suggested that Thomas Allen might sound nice," when asked why your kid has Allen as a middle name? And like, okay, maybe Allen has been your favorite name since you had a pal named that in nursery school, but it's still something, which is so important for me as the middle name serves literally no purpose. Ha. Maybe that's just me.

[spikes-sexkitty.livejournal.com]

hello. I'm Alix. we're members of the same name group. lol

and i do not have a middle name.

*shakes hands*

NOW you know one. ha ha ha ;)

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I think it's because some of us love names so much, that just two aren't enough. :P That, or the parents are honouring more than one person with the names.

[politicking.livejournal.com]

my son has two middle names because he has his father's last name, & he threw a hissy fit & refused to have our son have a hyphenated last name... so i put my last name in as one of his middle names.

[politicking.livejournal.com]

my grandmother doesn't have one... the only one out of her brothers & sisters, there are 5 of them, who doesn't! she's always thought it was weird, but never knew why her parents didn't give her one.

[rubytitania.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend has no middle name, nor do either of his siblings. I have one and my brother has two. I always felt I got short-changed :)

[bornto-fly.livejournal.com]

I think it's just a cultural thing. There's nothing that says that you HAVE TO use one, but mostly people in the US have just one middle name. Some people have two for religious reasons (ie, Catholics choose a Confirmation name when they take their First Communion, and it's after a Saint; for example, my friend's name is Hilarie Mae Sophia. Hilarie Mae is the name her parents gave her, and when she took First Communion, she chose Sophia as her Confirmation name). Other people have two middle names because the parents just liked the sound of it/liked too many names to pick just one, or because one middle name is a family name and another might just be one they liked, or after a godparent, or something like that.

I'll probably use just one middle name for my kids (ie: Samuel Michael LASTNAME), but I've considered using two, and having one being a family name (Michael) and another one just be a name I liked, such as Samuel Michael Asher LASTNAME. Although, that sounds horrible, so I don't know that I'd use that, haha.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

What was once traditional is now just commonplace. I know some people who have middle names that aren't family names...
It's just the ordinary to give 2 names in most western countries.

[sentinelsoul.livejournal.com]

I have two middle names and two last names. Huzzah!

My first name my mother chose-- Lacey. My first middle name is Elizabeth, which is a family name. The second middle name was in honor of her best friend at the time, Anne.

My first last name was the one I was born with, which is my mother's maiden name. When she married Daryl, his name was attached on the end because I was very attached to my first one and they saw no problem with just adding it on. Should I ever get married, that's what will happen, too-- it'll just be attached on, so I'll have one first name, two middle names, and three last names.

Right now I go by my first last name, so it's Ms. H---- instead of Ms. R---. Once married, though, I'd go by the married name, so Mrs. Whatever.

Names are very fluctual, so you can really have as many or as little as you want. For some people it's tradition, for others it's what sounds nice, for a few they do it for family, and so on.

Should I ever have children (which I doubt, because I'm not the mothering type), I'll probably give them two middle names, too, because it's what I have. The name I have picked out for a boy, for example, is Kenneth Eugene John. 'Kenneth Eugene' is after my grandfather, and then John is because I really like that name despite it's simplicity and commonality. =)

[xo-inthered.livejournal.com]

There is a trend where I live to give your daughter a hyphenated first name and no middle name. My friend is Ayla-Jade, no middle name.

[xo-inthered.livejournal.com]

I was given a middle name just because. I've always hated it and wished I'd had something with some sort of meaning, as opposed to "Louise".
My brother's middle name is my mothers maiden name.

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

Same. I took getting married as a fantastic opportunity to get rid of my old last name completely. Now my full name is completely spellable. :)

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

For me, it's an extra way to honor family members or people I admire. It's a tradition in the Southern US to give children the surnames as their mothers, or important family names, as middle or first names.

A lot of the time it's EXPECTED to have a middle name. I know one girl without one and on her license it says Sarah N/A Jones.

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

My husband and his sister have two middle names; one of them is their mother's maiden name. They went that way instead of going the hyphenated route. James Martin Daniels Lastname, and Mary Caitlin Daniels Lastname.

[http://users.livejournal.com/hajari_/]

Sarah N/A Jones??? Lol, that's harsh.

[secret-x-stars.livejournal.com]

this was written at 2:40AM on heavy pain meds, so uh, this may not be entirely cohesive... sorry. :(

as a departure from some of the other reasons listed here...

half of my family lives in Quebec. i remember my aunt's best friend had two children, and the mother explained why she gave her children two first names (one of the names is practically a middle name anyway, so that's why i'm mentioning this):

their last name was Charboneau, which apparently is/was a very common surname in Quebec (whether this is true or not i wouldn't know, this was just what I was told by the woman). So their given names are Raphael and Virginie, but their middle/second names are something like Alexandre and Marianne, respectively, so that if there is another Virginie Charboneau, which there is bound to be, she can still be reasonably differentiated.

something along these lines.

[secret-x-stars.livejournal.com]

also, the reason i was given a middle name was because my mother desperately wanted to name me Doina -- it was a very common girl's name in the 80s in Romania. however, my parents lived in Queens when I was born, so naming me Doina was not exactly a viable option. so to still have the satisfaction of giving me a Romanian name without making the rest of my life extremely awkward, she gave me a very American name (Jessica) but still made my middle name Doina.

i've renamed myself altogether and will be doing it legally when i have the money to Lorelei Adrienne Black. the reason i have a middle name is for nothing else than aesthetics, really. everyone i know has a middle name and it would just feel awkward to not have one. so i guess in that case it's just a cultural thing.

[samaside.livejournal.com]

My grandmother doesn't have one either. Her name is Normandi and her sister's name was Joy. Joy has a middle name but Normandi doesn't and when I asked my great grandmother why she said it was a long enough name to yell when she got angry as it was.

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

I don't. My initials are TV, incidentally.

[searlait.livejournal.com]

I like middle names that flow with the name. If I find two middle names that would add something to the name and it all goes together well, I'll use two middle names.

In general, names seem empty to me if they do not have a middle name. I know that's because I did not know anyone without a middle name until I was 15. My boyfriend lacks a legal middle name - he was born with one and then his mother removed it - and while I do like his name, I can't help but feel sort of sad for him because he wants to be able to use his middle name but it's not technically part of his name.

[searlait.livejournal.com]

I wish I could do that, since I do not care for my middle name, but I loathe my father and have his last name. I guess I could change it all together, but I think it would hurt my mother's feelings. And I can't think of anything that would go with Savannah.

[searlait.livejournal.com]

Why not NMN at least?
Or did she seriously write down N/A, so that's what they put down? My boyfriend doesn't have a middle name, so his license says Jonah [last].