I apologize if this has been posted before, of course. Are any of you ladies choosing your maiden name for your child’s middle? I have decided this is what I want to do for any son(s) only, since you can more or less count on men’s names not changing during the course of life. My husband loves the idea, and we have started trying to conceive. Also, it will be nice as I am the last person in my family to have carried the name (other than my mom, who is quickly aging and in poor health.) and will be the last. I would like the name to go on in some form as we have a proud history. Anyone else doing this? And if so, does style then continue to be a factor in choosing a first name?
Many women. It’s a fairly common practice in the South. I don’t think a family surname in the middle spot should affect the style of the first names you consider.
Sorry, I am not married but I know I will use my maiden name as a middle name if I were to ever get married and change my surname. My surname is [name_u]Love[/name_u] though so it’s a pretty versatile name, I know a few people who’ve done it and it’s not uncommon. All of my generation are girls too, so the surname’s going to die out.
I’d put my surname as my child’s middle spot regardless of style, flow or other mismatches.
I think it is a wonderful way to honor several loved ones. I personally have not considered my maiden name (my dad did not have a happy home environment while growing up) but have considered my late grandma’s married and maiden names. Most of the names we would consider (first and middle names) honor and/or have special meaning.
I do not think you need to worry about keeping to the same style for the first name.
It’s never really been done in my family, that I know of. I’ve been contemplating it more and more recently, especially since it could really work in my case. My maiden name is Italian, but not something too long…the first part of how it sounds would work well for a boy, and the ending part would sound good for a girl, so I couldn’t go wrong. However, I seriously doubt we’ll be doing that. There would be too much fuss about it on my husband’s side (maybe from him as well). We already have a middle name we really like picked out for a boy. Maybe I could do it for a girl, though. We don’t have a solid choice for a girl yet… For me, it really wouldn’t be to pass on the family name though. I have a brother and a male cousin who are carrying on that name, plus my brother has two sons himself. No guarantee that they (or a child of mine bearing my maiden name as a middle name) would carry it on themselves. I guess for me, it would be a cool representation of two people from two families coming together to create something new 
Not married yet. But I am definitely using family/honor surnames as middles for my future children. [name_u]Abbott[/name_u] and [name_m]Bennet[/name_m] to start. On my Italian side, it’s a little tougher:)
Not married, but I’d definitely use family surnames in the middle, especially on boys since I have middle honors for girls planned already. My maiden wouldn’t be one of them since people never spell or pronounce it correctly, even after being corrected, so I’ve always seen it more as an annoyance.
I always planned to do this, and I totally respect people for doing it, and no, I wouldn’t let it affect the style of first names that I was considering. Personally I think I’ve changed my mind about doing it myself for a number of reasons, but it makes all the sense in the world to do it.
It’s a very common practice in my country to use the mother’s maiden name as a middle name, and I’m kind of hoping we’ll do it. The only way we won’t is if we hyphenate our lastnames. DH and I are not from the same country, so we have some different views on what to do 
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I enjoyed reading your stories and opinions. I am leaning towards not lending as much credence to style of the first name in this instance, and I’m glad to see that most agree.
I am absolutely 100% in favor of using any family maiden name anywhere for a child. Women are expected to give up their family name to join the ranks of their husband’s family when they’re married and most children also end up with the father’s surname. Why? Families are changing and so are the traditions. It’s not a totally uncommon practice in some areas but I encourage more people to do it. Why only carry on one family name? (and then men/men’s families want Jrs. III, IV, etc. on top, psssh).
Go for it.
I used my surname [name_u]Elliott[/name_u] for a middle name with my 3rd son
My husband and I had our first son when we were just 17 and not married yet, We gave our son his last name, and my last name as his middle name. We had 3 more boys and gave them all middle names from somewhere in my family.