Don't You Wish...

General Name Discussion
1

…that there was a popularity list for middle names? Then people would actually be able to see how popular their favorite middles really are. This probably won’t happen, I’m just saying, because

  1. There’s not much reason to do it
  2. The list would have to stop after about ten names.
    ([name]Just[/name] laying out the arguments before you tell them to me. I know it won’t happen; I’m just speculating about it!)

I think it would be kind of fun to GUESS what a middle name list would look like, though. Here’s mine:
Boys:

  1. [name]James[/name] (by a mile)
  2. [name]John[/name]
  3. [name]William[/name]
  4. [name]Alexander[/name]
  5. [name]Jack[/name]

Girls:

  1. [name]Rose[/name] ([name]Grace[/name] will probably beat her soon, though)
  2. [name]Grace[/name]
  3. [name]Marie[/name] (I wasn’t sure about whether [name]Elizabeth[/name] should be before [name]Marie[/name]…)
  4. [name]Elizabeth[/name]
  5. [name]Renee[/name]

I think seeing an actual list would be kind of amazing, because the numbers would be so large for the popular ones, but there would be so few names in all on the list. [name]Just[/name] goes to show how condensed trends can be.
I also wonder where having two middles would fit in…and what about older middle names, like [name]Ann[/name], [name]Sue[/name], [name]Rae[/name], [name]Michelle[/name], [name]Lee[/name], and [name]Lynn[/name]?
What do you think of this topic?

2

They do publish the top 20 middle names in [name]Scotland[/name].

These are the top 2008 ones:

Girls:

[name]Elizabeth[/name]
[name]Louise[/name]
[name]Rose[/name]
[name]Jane[/name]
[name]Grace[/name]
[name]Margaret[/name]
[name]Anne[/name]
[name]Ann[/name]
[name]Mary[/name]
[name]Catherine[/name]
[name]Marie[/name]
[name]May[/name]
[name]Jean[/name]
[name]Helen[/name]
[name]Sarah[/name]
[name]Isabella[/name]
[name]Anna[/name]
[name]Christina[/name]
[name]Olivia[/name]
[name]Leigh[/name]

[name]Claire[/name], [name]Kate[/name], [name]Nicole[/name], [name]Frances[/name], [name]Alice[/name], [name]Alexandra[/name], [name]Jade[/name] all dropped out from the top 20 slightly from previous years

Boys:

[name]James[/name]
[name]John[/name]
[name]William[/name]
[name]David[/name]
[name]Alexander[/name]
[name]Robert[/name]
[name]Thomas[/name]
[name]Andrew[/name]
[name]George[/name]
[name]Michael[/name]
[name]Joseph[/name]
[name]Scott[/name]
[name]Paul[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Patrick[/name]
[name]Alan[/name]
[name]Jack[/name]
[name]Daniel[/name]
[name]Ian[/name]
[name]Stuart[/name]

[name]Charles[/name], [name]Edward[/name], [name]Christopher[/name], [name]Stephen[/name] dropped down slightly from previous years

3

That’s so great! Thank you! Unfortunately, we have nothing like that in the US. :frowning:

4

I think for boys it would be [name]James[/name], [name]Thomas[/name], [name]William[/name], maybe [name]John[/name]. And for girls I think probably [name]Grace[/name], [name]Anne[/name], [name]Marie[/name], [name]Elizabeth[/name] and [name]Rose[/name].

5

I bet [name]Claire[/name] would be pretty high up for the girls, too. And maybe [name]Noelle[/name].

6

This isn’t about popularity, but I was thinking what might make a cool middle name for a girl the other day, and I found myself thinking about [name]Velvet[/name]. For one, it is a very elegant fabric, and two, it reminds me of the kids’ book, Velveteen Rabbit. Any thoughts?

Oh, and for your question, I think everyone and her brother in my high school class had the middle name [name]Elizabeth[/name] or [name]Anne[/name]! I always felt a bit unique with my [name]Elyse[/name]…