Hey guys. Not everyone has one, but some of us have middle name. They can be double-barrelled at times also. I have never really seen the use of them. You go by and large by your Christian name and Surname 99% of the time, and in general people just echo their middle name. Do you have one and do you like it? What would you change it to (by de poll) if you wanted to? To start things off, my full name is Skyla Bethany Rose, and to be fair I like my middle name. Beth was my favourite character in the Walking Dead series which was pretty cool also. I personally feel that scrapping middle names wouldn't be the end of the world either, but others may see a logical reason for keeping them within our culture. Interested to know your thoughts?
Mine is Jonathan which is the name of my Grandad, my Dad and my son both have middle names which are the first name of their grandads too. I think that’s a fairly common tradition. My Nan, Rose actually uses her middle name as her first name after being born Ada Rose there came a point where she realised she really disliked Ada. Whilst slightly irrelevant I consider myself extremely lucky to be 35 and still have all 4 grandparents alive and in reasonable health!
I have two middle names - Patrick Francis. Patrick for my grandad on dad’s side and Francis for great grandad on mums side. Sadly neither are with us any more, nor is mum - but if I ever have a girl I intend to give her Linda as a middle name in her memory.
My family has always used the fathers first name for the sons middle name. I think my first name is awful, so I decided not to saddle my son with it. My mother found out and tried to pressure me into using my name for his middle name. Big mistake. We gave him a very unusual middle name to purposely **** her off. It's meaningless and will not affect his life in any way, but my mother still refuses to use it. Pathetic. Don't get me started on Christenings!!!!!
My middle name is my late father's name. My wife has no middle name but her brother does. My father and my wife's father had the same first and middle name and so my brother in law has the same middle name as me. My christian name and surname are both very common, it's not quite John Smith territory but not far off so I guess I am quite grateful for my middle name that might help distinguish me from the thousands of others that share my name.
Our neighbours in the house opposite have a little girl called Ada - the name suits her very well I think. She loves football and plays for a local girls team.
I don’t have a middle name. My dad’s middle name is my name though. My wife and kids don’t have middle names either, so not much to report from here. Oh and I love these sorts of personal details threads. I’ll start one on mother’s maiden names and national insurance numbers soon. Always been super interested in those
First and middle names taken from both grandfathers. I like that as a tradition & intend to continue it should any of the paternity cases against me go the wrong way.
My middle name is my late mum’s first name and it is also the middle name of my eldest daughter. I like having it and passing it on as it feels like a nod to my mum who left us too young.
My middle name is Sometimes, of course. Middle names are useful if you hate the first name your parents lumbered you with. .
No middle name for me but my wife's middle name is Gale. They spelt it wrong as it was supposed to be Gail!! My kids both have two middle names. My son has Dennis and Stuart who are his Granddads and my daughter has Nellie and Ruth which was my Grandma's name and my wife's aunts name
My first name is Anthony, but I’ve always been known by my second name. My mum thought that if they were the other way around, they would run together in an unattractive way. (She was Welsh and they’re fussy about such things.) Anyway, being called by your second name is an absolute pain. If you’re yet to be a parent, please do not inflict this on any of your children.
My middle names are Arthur and Leonard named after my two grandads. Growing up I disliked them - they were not cool names - but as I have grown older I have come to really like them. The only annoying thing is that Leonard was misspelled Lennard on my birth certificate which gives me grief whenever I try to apply to Government Gateway and the like as my passport/ driving licence and birth certiciate are different.
Someone above referenced the Welsh attitude to middle names. In the part of Cymru in which I was born the tradition was to give 2 Christian names with the intention that the second of the two would be the name that was used, leaving the first name as a kind of ‘formal’ one. So my Dad decided that he wanted ‘Robert’ to be my formal name whilst my Mum (who was part English/part Scottish) was adamant that my ‘familiar’ name would be ‘Ian’ (much to the disgust of my Granny who wanted ‘Ieuan’ as a good solid Welsh name). Anyway, when my Dad set off to register my birth he was under strict instructions from my Mum NOT to follow the local tradition and register my name in the format ‘Formal name-familiar name-surname due to that surname. She was furious when she realised he’d ignored her as my initials ended up as RIP…as my Dad habitually spoke Welsh that particular issue hadn’t crossed his mind. I wonder why they divorced within 5 years? And picking up on @UEA_Hornet mentioning NI numbers….that’s another story explaining why I ended up changing my surname!
Thank you. That's a useful insight into why I was saddled with being known by my second name. And, as I said, please never do this to your own children, even if you're Welsh.
My first three initials are PAL - back in the day a well known dog food brand - never suffered from that at school did I?
