[name_f]My[/name_f] middle names are really important to me… it might be because I choose them (with my mothers guidance) when I was 8. I wasn’t baptized until then and it was important to my mom that I’d have them, even though she was very overwhelmed with the whole naming thing when I was born.
I’m not sure they flow 100% 4-2-2-3 but as I tend to put a very slight pause between mn1 and mn2 when I say it out loud it works well enough.
The reason why mn’s are important to me is because they add layers or meaning, guidance and personality to a name. [name_f]My[/name_f] mom was older when I was born and I’ve always felt that she helped me choose middle names that would guide me should she not be able to. I went through some tough times as a kid but as a name nerd I always drew strength and a sense of guidance from the meanings of my names. (I get that most people wouldn’t even know they meaning of their names but…) With names meaning Defender/Protector, [name_f]Wisdom[/name_f], and Colorful little [name_m]Fish[/name_m] - I always took that as a sign that my mom thought that thinking for yourself, and standing up for others was important. Thoughtfulness and thinking things through before acting but to also make sure not to take everything too seriously.
I fully intend to give my children mn’s and to make sure they know what they mean for exactly that reason. (and yes I will be writing each of them a letter of why we choose their names etc…) [name_f]My[/name_f] husband disagrees somewhat… he thinks 1mn is plenty and it would just be easiest if all our kids had my maiden name as their mn…just like him and his sister… I tried suggesting we could use his ln as a mn and they could take my ln as their ln instead… he wasn’t thrilled…lol.
I’ve personally never seen a point unless the name is important to you, but I only think that because I was raised in a family of 12 kids, and only three of us have middle names.
I don’t think that middle names are really useful,as you call a child with the name you love most. However it will prove useful if you “have” to name a baby after someone you love but you don’t like the name,so you can use the middle name for first. My name is [name_f]Rea[/name_f] [name_f]Eleonora[/name_f] but everyone knows me only with my “middle” name. My father felt he “had” to name me [name_f]Eleonora[/name_f] but my mother loves the name [name_f]Rea[/name_f] so they combinated them. Generally speaking you can use a middle name to add beauty to a name or combinate the two names (I know a woman who named her daughter [name_f]Maria[/name_f] [name_f]Adriana[/name_f] after my daugter -she really loves her name- and her brother’s name [name_m]Arjen[/name_m] -who is my daughter’s best friend. She calls the baby [name_f]Marianna[/name_f], pronounced Ma-ri-[name_m]AH[/name_m]-na)
I think a middle name, at least to some extent, is what you make it. Some may give middle names that they like without significant meaning behind their choice. Others may use it as an opportunity to honor someone special in their life. For example, my parents gave me a name honoring my grandmother.
That being said, there’s nothing wrong with just going for a name you like. I think it all depends on the family.
I agree wit some others on the thread. Having more than 2 names IMHO is not necessary, and I dont understand why the practice is culturally upheld. You have your name, the thing that people call you, and your family designator, so why do you need a third name? I think previous posters give a good list of why some may want to have three names.
I don’t think middle-names are even necessary, unless it is a family tradition. My middle-name is my mother’s maiden surname, and I tend to wear it as part of my surname, since I’m proud of both parts of my family. I’m going to do the same for my own children when I have them - in the very distant future - and give them my surname as their middle name and let that be that.
I guess I am a weirdo, but I do actually wonder about what other people’s middle names are.
For me, a middle name is a way to use more names. I like the idea of using a middle name with meaning, but most of the mn’s I like are just that; I like them. Not enough to put in first place, but enough for the name nerd in me to say “hey, I used that”. So really, using one or two middles is more selfish than actually wanting to give my child more options later in life.
I use my childrens middle names interchangeably all the time. They are not family names but they are the names that my husband and I really loved but didn’t want to use in the first spot. My future children, should I have any, will have meaningful middle names, they are in honor of the two children that I lost.
Well with me and my SO, the middle name was a bargaining chip. I told him of we had a girl that he could have more say in the first name as long as I could have [name_f]Irene[/name_f] as the middle to honor my grandmother. We had a boy so I let him pick the middle name because I monopolized the first name (I hated most of his suggestions). To him, flow was really important. He wanted a name that sounded like it was supposed to be together. It was less important to me, however in some cases I could see it mattering. For example, the girl name we both agree that we like is [name_f]Aurora[/name_f]. However I won’t change my mind about [name_f]Irene[/name_f], and [name_f]Aurora[/name_f] [name_f]Irene[/name_f] has too many vowels and Rs to roll off the tongue easily.
I personally view them as useful, though not necessarily important. The middles can be used for honoring purposes or for names that you really liked but ended up just sticking in the middle spot, for whatever reason. It could be important for tradition, heritage, or culture. Middle names can be useful in certain cases, like when there are two students with the same first and last names in the same class.
I actually love finding out peoples’ middle names. It’s cool to see the style of the parents and how bold or classic they were with their choices. I personally find it a little odd when a person has no middle name. My dad and his siblings didn’t have middle names, but my cousins and I all were given them. They came in handy when all of us kids were in trouble (which is how I found out I had a middle name anyhow lol). I don’t know, I just think that it must be so hard picking just one name you like. At least with middle names, you can use other names you love but didn’t make the fn spot.
When I go to have kids, we will be giving them a middle name…probably two, like my fiance has. We are probably going to go the route of using middle names to honor family members.
My future in laws call everyone by their first and middle name. The newest addition doesn’t answer to anything other than [name_u]Riley[/name_u] [name_f]Paige[/name_f]. In my family middle names aren’t really used, so it really depends on your family. Also my in laws have names they want to keep… [name_u]James[/name_u] and [name_u]Lee[/name_u]… not my taste.
I think it all depends on the family.