[name_f]Do[/name_f] you know anyone with their mother’s or another relative’s surname as their middle name? [name_f]Do[/name_f] they like it? [name_f]Do[/name_f] they wish they had a middle name that wasn’t a surname? Is this a common trend where you live?
I’m curious because the only person I know (or actually, know of- I know her father and asked him about his kids’ names) whose middle name is a surname, hates it. It’s her mother’s maiden name- don’t want to post it here, but it’s similar to [name_m]Walter[/name_m]. Her mother goes by a hyphenated surname, [name_m]Walter[/name_m]-Husband’s last name. This girl apparently hates her middle name and wishes she had “a real middle name”. Her older sister’s middle name isn’t a surname.
My family is [name_f]Asian[/name_f] and we live in an area with a pretty high [name_f]Asian[/name_f] population, so probably at least half the people I know don’t have middle names at all, or have an [name_f]Asian[/name_f] name in the middle spot but don’t consider it a real middle. Most [name_f]Asian[/name_f] surnames wouldn’t work as given names anyway.
I have a cousin who has his mother’s maiden name as his middle. He’s a second-born son, and his older brother has their dad’s name and is a junior. I haven’t ever heard one way or the other whether he likes the middle name, but I think it suits him well (of course, it’s also my maiden name, so maybe that’s why). FYI, this cousin lives, along with most of my extended family, in the midwest.
I don’t think using the mom’s maiden name in the middle name spot is particularly trendy in southern [name_f]CA[/name_f]. It’s an older tradition and maybe more a southern U.S. thing, as far as I understand.
One thing I have noticed, though, is that people are using mom’s or grandma’s maiden name as a son’s first name. A momfriend of mine whose son was in my son’s preschool class gave her second son her mom’s maiden name in the first name spot. The name was Ch@pman, and I really liked it because it reminded me of [name_m]John[/name_m] Ch@pman, a.k.a., [name_m]Johnny[/name_m] Appleseed.
My mother and I both have my grandmother’s maiden name in the middle, and I love it! A future daughter would have it as her first middle as well. I love having that connection to my grandmother and being able to carry on her family’s name. My sister has our other grandmother’s maiden as her first middle, and while we aren’t as close with that side of the family, she talks about passing it along as well. Actually, we have 4 family names as middles between the 2 of us, and they’re all surnames. I’ve never wished for more ‘normal’ names.
I have a friend whose brother has their mother’s maiden name as his middle name… they’re Swiss-Canadians, though, and while it’s his legal middle name here, Switzerland doesn’t/ won’t recognize it as a first/ middle name because it is strictly a surname there, so I think on his Swiss passport it’s just blank in the middle name spot. I don’t know how the brother feels, but my friend loves the idea of her mother’s maiden name getting used in the middle.
The András in my sig as a middle for [name_m]Edmund[/name_m] is the first half of my mother’s maiden name. I’d be open to using the whole thing , too… I’d actually prefer the whole thing but it’s pretty uncommon so I tend not to write it all out online.
My ex’s sister used the not-pluralized version of their ln as a mn for her son. Like… if their surname was [name_m]Matthews[/name_m], she used [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] (her and the son’s ln were obviously different than my ex’s at this point). I think that’s a nice way to do it.
I live in [name_f]Alabama[/name_f], and I know loads of people with their mother’s, grandmother’s, or great-grandmother’s surname as their first or middle name. It’s very common in the South.
I wanted to come back and add that I plan to do this with my kids. I have several family surnames on my list. Edwards is my grandmother’s maiden name and Freeman is my great-grandmother’s maiden name (hence Edward and Freeman in my top ten).
My husband does. He likes it. It’s a tradition in his family, but only for sons. I think most surnames tend to work better as masculine names anyway. We’ll pass mine on to our son if we ever have one.
I know siblings where the son got the mother’s last name as his MN and his father’s last name as his last name. The girl got her mother’s last name as her last name, and her father’s LN as her MN.
So say their names were (this is only an example!)
Mother: [name_f]Anne[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] [name_m]Smith[/name_m]
Father: [name_u]James[/name_u] [name_m]Christopher[/name_m] [name_m]Jones[/name_m]
[name_m]Son[/name_m]: [name_m]Lucas[/name_m] [name_m]Smith[/name_m] [name_m]Jones[/name_m]
Daughter: [name_f]Claire[/name_f] [name_m]Jones[/name_m] [name_m]Smith[/name_m]
I don’t know if the kids like it that way, and it sort of stinks that they have different last names, but it works for them!
My husband’s mn is actually from his mother’s maiden name. However, he has never had a relationship with his mother (his paternal grandparents raised him from 6 months) and he wishes he did NOT have that association.
Generally, though, I love the idea of using a family name. Many of my favorites are names from either my or his family, and we would happily use them on future children.
I only know of one person who has her mother’s maiden as her middle. It’s an ugly sounding name, though - the letters sound awkward together. Not naming material at all.
We have the last-name Westle in my family, and I think it would make a pretty cool middle on a boy.
My mother’s maiden name isn’t really usable as a name at all.
My grandmother’s maiden however is a nice boys name and I’d consider it for a mn for a boy perhaps.
I’ve heard of it and seen it a few times.
I find that after the age of about 20 most people don’t really care about their middle names 
It seems to be a big deal in childhood (when everything feels dramatic) but I can’t say I know any adults who even talk about their middle names much less have strong emotional opinions about them!
I think having a family name in that spot is a nice custom, and if it sounds well there or if it’s very meaningful it’s good to consider it.
I live in the South, so maiden names or family surnames are common in the first place as well as the middle. Two of the boys in my class are named Rader and Deaton. Rader was a maiden name and Deaton a family name. I really like the surname as first name option. Many people think of it as trendy, but where I’m from it’s simply tradition.