What you think of distant maiden names as middle names? For example, I really love my maiden name (Moravan) and we picked a girl’s name where it works great for a middle name ([name]Mirabelle[/name] Moravan).
However, our favorite boy’s name right now is [name]Anselm[/name]. “[name]Anselm[/name] Moravan”? no way – it mushes the names together too much. I’m not a fan of my mother’s maiden name at all ("[name]Anselm[/name] Yang" doesn’t do anything for me), so then I thought – what about my mother-in-law’s maiden name? I think that “[name]Anselm[/name] Trehel” works quite nicely.
I’m hoping to get this started as a trend – let’s get rid of nightmarish hyphenated last names (which don’t extend beyond a generation or so anyway) and on to Darwinian natural selection of the best maiden names in our family histories! This lets us get some middle name variety too.
I plan on using my maiden name as a middle for my child, and possibly using my grandmother’s maiden name as well. As for using my mother-in-law’s maiden name as a middle, well… it would work (Ivins) but I don’t particularly like her and she doesn’t like me.
I Think it’s a great idea. I have considered it because I like my mil’s maiden name but she dislikes it for some reason so that might make it weird. I think you should go for it though:)
This is quite common here in the South. My middle name was my grandmother’s maiden name, and it was my mom’s middle name too. I say ‘was’ because we also usually switch our maiden name to the middle name spot after getting married.
I’m planning to use family maiden names for all my kids’ middles. I’m hoping to use my maiden name, [name]MIL[/name]'s maiden name, and my grandmother’s maiden name (my old middle.) I’ve tried to consider just other names that I like for the middle spot, but it feels too random to me. I think that’s just due to tradition-- me and my siblings and cousins had family middles, so that’s what feels normal and ‘right’ to me. If using a more distant middle feels right to you, I think it’s a nice way to add a family tie to your child’s name!
I like this trend. My [name]SIL[/name]'s middle name is [name]Casey[/name], which was her mom’s maiden name. My own son’s middle name is Hensley, after his great grandma’s maiden name. Nice way to use family names, even if you don’t particularly care for the first names. I think it means more too.
i think it work. some last names may not work, btu most will
It use to be a done in my family way back.
I can think of 1 celeb who is a example of this, and thats [name]Donny[/name] and [name]Marie[/name] Osmonds brother, [name]Merril[/name]. [name]Merril[/name] [name]DAVIS[/name] [name]Osmond[/name] (mother was [name]Olive[/name] [name]Davis[/name]). It can always work if the last name has got a namey-name sound to it x
My middle name is my great-grandmothers maiden name, and my sons middle name is my great-great grandmothers maiden name. I probably won’t use my own maiden name because it’s so boring ([name]Taylor[/name]), but all my uncles (only one of which had a child) have the same sort of middle names, so i guess it’s sort of a tradition in my family. There are tons of amazing surnames in my family tree. And really, you have just as much ties to all of them, ya know? You just happened to come down the male line of the surname you ended up with, you have just as much blood from the more interesting ones in your family history!
My [name]MIL[/name] got married at 18, she doesn’t seem to care about her maiden name at all. It’s [name]Anthony[/name], pretty boring. Some that i want to use are Darling, Tilley, [name]Bliss[/name], [name]Frost[/name], [name]Dodge[/name], [name]Treat[/name], etc.
I just love the fact that you used the phrase “Darwinian natural selection” to refer to names… Haha that definitely made me smile.
I think this trend is awesome, and I wish I could carry it on… My last name is really cool, that sometimes my friends and teachers call me by last name. I love my last name and I’ll hate to give up one day, but I couldn’t use it as a middle name. It’s great for a last name, but I’m not so sure it would work as a middle.
But maybe one day I’ll come around to using it as a middle name! I think it’s a great idea.
My mom’s maiden name is kind of cool, [name]Minna[/name] (last year I was an intern in a class for students with learning disabilities, and they were doing a worksheet and one sentence said something along the lines of “[name]Minna[/name] said she wanted to ______ at the movies.” Weird!), but I could never use it because of the way she was raised, and it would just bring about bad memories and connotations.
My paternal grandmother’s maiden name was Katz, which I always thought was really cool. Maybe I could use [name]Kat[/name] as a middle or nickname?
[name]Love[/name] this thread! It really got me thinking…
I had a friend whose last name is [name]Love[/name]. Her moms maiden name was [name]Paris[/name], so she hyphenated it to [name]Paris[/name]-[name]Love[/name]! Is that the best last name or what? And it’s totally legitamate, so cool!
No one has to give up a last name. I certainly didn’t! I find it funny that people worry about hyphens in the names of children belonging to strangers. It’s not like kre8tve spellings that may stop their resumes at the door.
