Middle name choices

[jerseygrits.livejournal.com]

So, my middle name is my mother's maiden name, and I've always thought that was pretty cool. I've also always planned on doing the same thing with my future children and giving them my maiden name as their middle name. As a result of this, I haven't even really considered first names as middle names for a very long time.

The way I see it, if I like a first name that much, why would I want to stick it in the middle where it would never be used? Why don't I keep it on the list for another child down the road? On the other side of the coin, why would I want to use a first name that I didn't love that much in the middle just to fill up some space?

It seems to me that the middle name is a perfect place for something meaningful. It's hard for me to see the point in putting a "pretty" name in the middle when the best thing it has going for it is that it sounds good with the first name. I understand why people might want to do this and why they might not have any better reason to do anything else, but personally, it would bother me using a middle name that didn't have a special meaning. It really baffles me when people have lists of first names and they want to combine them into first-and-middle-name sets. For me, everything on my list is a first-name possibility.

And with first names, by the way, the sound of the name and the "pretty" factor are very important since this is the name that will be used primarily for the child's entire life.

So, here are the questions:

Are there others of you out there who have your mothers' maiden names as your middle names? How does this affect your naming choices for your children?

How many of you are considering using a maiden name or another family LAST name as a middle name?

How many of you are considering using a family or otherwise meaningful FIRST name as a middle name?

How many of you are considering a "pretty" first name that sounds great but doesn't have any additional meaning to you for the middle name?

I realize the line between "meaningful" and "not meaningful" is difficult to draw, and I realize it doesn't just have to do with family history (the name might be after an author you love, for example). What I am really getting at is how your process for choosing the middle name fits in with the process for the first name. Is the middle name choice like a sub-choice of the first name, or is it something entirely different? How will you choose?

Comments

[lindo-711.livejournal.com]

Although we won't be using my maiden name for middle names, we do plan to use family names or meaningful names for our children:
Marshall (my husband's grandfather)
Atticus (To Kill a Mockingbird is one of our favorite novels and we want our son to have Atticus' wisdom)
Marjorie (my husband's grandmother and the name of a religious leader I admire)
Alma (we both speak Spanish and alma means 'soul')