I’m interested to know what Nameberry in general thinks of this trend.
Personally, I’m not a fan - I can tolerate something like [name]Alice[/name] [name]Ivy[/name] [name]Rae[/name], because the individual names are short. The syllable count isn’t staggering. However, some of the overly long combinations that result on Nameberry are just ridiculous to me. When you have eight, nine, or more syllables before even reaching the last name, it seems incredibly affected, pretentious and heavy - particularly in an era when there are so many hyphenated surnames. So whenever I see another thread where someone wants to saddle their poor innocent child with [name]Persephone[/name] [name]Constance[/name] [name]Isabella[/name] [name]Remington[/name]-[name]Williams[/name], I just want to grind my teeth!
My rule of thumb - if it wouldn’t fit on one line on a driver’s license, don’t use it. What are everyone else’s thoughts?
I have mixed thoughts on this. My girls have two middle names each. They will add on a third middle name when they are Confirmed into the Catholic Church when they are aged 12 or so. So basically my girls names go like: FirstName MiddleName MiddleName ConformationName Surname, which sounds really long. I don’t have an issue with it though, b/c middle names are so rarely used.
I only have an issue with it when parents give an excessive amount of names for no good reason. My girls have a family name in the middle, and their Confirmation name will be chosen to honour a [name]Saint[/name] they admire. I guess you could say that I could have dropped the middle name I chose just because I liked it, but it sounded good.
So all in all, middle names are fine so long as they honour something or someone. Giving your child four middle names “just because” is silly and unneccesary imo.
I don’t think it’s a big deal. I have a friend whose name is 39 letters and 21 syllables long total, and it’s never been a big deal to her either. She did admit that she didn’t learn how to spell all of her middle names until second grade, but they are African names.
I figure if that can work, people can use two or three middles without it being too much of a hindrance.
Oh I love it, if it’s done well.
I’m probably biased though, I have five names. [name]One[/name] first, two middle, and a double-barrelled surname. I am not fond of the individual names, but I [name]LOVE[/name] having two middles. I hate having two lasts.
I agree, I don’t like long ones like [name]Persephone[/name] [name]Constance[/name] [name]Isabella[/name] [name]Remington[/name]-[name]Williams[/name]. Far too British royalty for my tastes.
but something like, [name]Allegra[/name] [name]Charlotte[/name] [name]Noel[/name], I like a lot. (It’s one on my list for myself actually) It’s 3-2-2, so 7 syllables before the surname. That might fit your rule.
My name doesn’t fit on my health card, which is sad because I like having so many names, but it’s not a big deal to me. It’s like my little secret I get to share if I want to.
I also feel like it gives me more me-ness.
I use middle names. A lot. So I don’t use the “hardly used” reason to do really long names. Amongst my family and friends, middle names are NOT only occasionally taken out or never even known by anyone other than the child.
So I stick to one middle name per customer. Maybe I would do two if our last name was both short and common (i.e. [name]Tabitha[/name] [name]May[/name] [name]Jane[/name] [name]Smith[/name]) but it’s not.
I guess it might be different if you never use the middles.
I like double middle names. I want to give any sons double middle names. However for daughters just one middle name. My reason being that eventually they will (hopefully) marry and take on their husband’s last name while keeping their maiden name, effectively making their maiden name a second middle name-like I did. No hyphenated nonsense. My maiden is now my second middle name, enabling me to keep it as I wanted but I still honored my husband by taking his name as my last name. Makes my name longer than fits on one line at times but that’s not a big deal, doesn’t cause problems.
I love double middle names. I have 2 middle names and a confirmation name too. My mns are [name]Claire[/name] [name]Lydia[/name] and my confirmation name is [name]Frances[/name]. I will be giving double mns to my kids - boys will be [name]Rafferty[/name] [name]Saxon[/name] [name]Johnson[/name] and [name]Oisin[/name] [name]Lucas[/name] [name]Jameson[/name]. First names reflect my Irish roots, middle names are important places to my husband and I and 2nd mns are family names - [name]John[/name] is DH mn and his late fathers name and [name]James[/name] is my dad and grandfather’s mn too. I agree its important to have meanings behind MNs that give grounding. My surname is very common so it adds distinction to my kids identities