I used to hate the thought of a double middle name (no offense) but I’m starting to warm up to the idea. Thoughts on each?
Double middle names can be great, especially if you’re honoring multiple family members. Here’s some examples of double middle names that flow well:
[name_f]Katherine[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] [name_f]Anne[/name_f]
[name_f]Catherine[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] [name_f]Grace[/name_f]
[name_f]Emma[/name_f] [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] [name_f]Grace[/name_f]
[name_f]Olivia[/name_f] [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] [name_f]May[/name_f]
[name_m]Ethan[/name_m] [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] [name_u]James[/name_u]
[name_m]William[/name_m] [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] [name_m]Thomas[/name_m]
[name_m]Liam[/name_m] [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] [name_u]James[/name_u]
[name_u]Michael[/name_u] [name_m]Jason[/name_m] [name_m]Oliver[/name_m]
I think they’re lovely for girls, mildly pretentious for boys (yes…double standard). That’s not to say I wouldn’t give a son a double middle.
I find it a bit pretentious and unnecessary unless it’s to honour more than one person. That being said, my daughter has two middles, the second is my surname. It is constantly dropped on paper work. [name_f]My[/name_f] cousins gave each of their 5 kids 4 mns each, because they couldn’t decide and because they were very young.
Speaking from a friend’s perspective; my friend [name_f]Melanie[/name_f] has 2 middle names…both given to honor family members…however, she has had difficulties with government documents, school registrations and with occupational records. Not that these cannot be worked around, of course they can…she’s done it, but she prefers if she was given one middle name rather than two. Some documents/applications only recognize one middle name for each person–which she has found out–so she pretty much chose one of her middle names to use for all document situations. Her college degree even only uses one of her middle names. 
So it’ll be up to you…I think parents can be a bit too fantastical when naming their children. If you truly want to honor someone and prefer not to do it with their first and middle name…then two middle names is alright and not unheard of…clearly. I would, however, recommend to forgo a double middle if you reason is because you can’t decide which name you like better for your child. Then it’s just unnecessary.
I love the double middles, as long as they have special meaning to them. I also like how the double middle’s can make a lovely combined meaning. For example, [name_f]Nanetta[/name_f] [name_u]Yuki[/name_u] [name_f]Flora[/name_f] as a combined meaning means ‘graceful snow flower’. It also honours many important people for me:
[name_f]Nanetta[/name_f]: [name_f]My[/name_f] Japanese grandma was [name_f]Nana[/name_f], and my mother is [name_f]Ann[/name_f].
[name_u]Yuki[/name_u]: The name of my great grandmother.
[name_f]Florence[/name_f]: [name_f]My[/name_f] other great grandmother’s middle name was [name_f]Flora[/name_f] and she was born in [name_f]Florence[/name_f], [name_f]Italy[/name_f].
Snowdrops are also among my father’s favourite flowers, and he is a horticulturalist by trade.
[name_f]My[/name_f] dad has two middles, and he has never really had a problem with it: one usually gets dropped (usually [name_m]Christopher[/name_m]) on documents, but it isn’t a big deal. He also likes having a ‘secret’ middle name. I don’t like double middles for the sake of double middles, with fillers, etc., but if they are names I especially love and have a lot of personal meaning, I adore them.
I love double middles! I have a double middle, and it hasn’t caused any issues, in fact I feel more connected to my dad and grandad (my 2nd middle is their name). Plus it allows you to use more names, whether for honouring purposes, or just to use more names you love.
I have two middle names, and many friends of mine only have one. I like the fact that I have two middle names because they honour wonderful people. I like both two middle names or one middle- three feels like a lot to me, but to each his/her own!! Three middles can be very nice with certain combinations!!
2 middle names here, one to honour my dad’s side and the other to other my mother’s side. [name_f]My[/name_f] brothers have two as well. Depending on where you live it might be a fuss, but where I live I’ve never ever had trouble with it and I know plenty of people with all varieties like more than 1, none, 5 even…
I’m not in to it at all. I’m not really in to middle names in general, I fell out with the idea when I first moved to Spain and there are no middle names here. [name_f]My[/name_f] SO wants to use middle names to honour people, but isn’t in to the whole “combo” idea when the middle is chosen for flow or fun. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess.
I would use 2 middles to honour, but that’s about it, I think.
I’ve never liked the idea of two middles names, it just seems like too much. However I am set on a name for my first son and my partner is set on a middle name for her first son. [name_m]Both[/name_m] names end in -er, and we both don’t like the sound of the two names but the baby will have two surnames and we think five names is a bit two much (we wanted to put another middle name in between the two) so we are dealing with the double -er.
I mean, I don’t care what other people do, but I don’t like two middle names at all myself, I find it too much. If I could find the right first name that I felt was strong enough to stand alone, I would not use a middle name at all for a girl. I have a specific middle name with significance that I would want to use for a boy, but nothing special for a girl and I don’t particularly care for the idea of a middle name just because… although I like them to give a name a bit more gravity.
Well I used to think it was stupid, based upon 12 years of hearing classmates having to ask teachers what they should put on our standardized test booklets (which middle initial). I thought it complicated and I still go back and forth on it. I only have one, so that seems easiest to me. [name_f]My[/name_f] fiance has two middles. His older sister has two first names and a middle. His older brother has, I think, 3 middles. And his younger brother has around 7 names total (first middles and lasts…not to mention he will answer to 4 of those names and the two last names depending on who is talking to him). So yeah…it still seems a bit complicated to me but not too unusual.
That being said, I can see my fiance and I potentially giving our kids two middles. Or just one. We’ll cross that bridge later on lol
As someone with 2 middles I tend to like the idea of 2 middles and find having one I don’t know how to explain it like almost like part of the names missing my whole family has 2 middles I’m noticing that people tend to stick with whats around them I’m only just now getting used to seeing name combos with just one middle so I can see how people with one middle find it odd seeing people with more than one but I don’t really understand why so many people find it pretentious if someone was walking about with 5 or so plus surname thinking their royalty id understand but just one extra that’s often family tradition and they truly aren’t trying to be pretentious in the slightest sorry for the rant I’m seeing the word pretentious a awful lot on here lately and mainly it’s people worried others will find them pretentious I really don’t think the number of middles will affect as much as the persons personality when it comes to my preference like the question asked I’d say 2 middles for most of my combos but a few of the ones that are really long have one middle so I guess it depends on the names I’m working with
I used to be firmly in the 2-middles camp but more recently I’ve developed a love of simplicity in names and therefore I now favor just one middle. After all, I only have one as does everyone i know. Plus, I have unique taste to begin with and I have a feeling when I have kids someday, some people in my life may raise their eyebrows at my choice, and two middles would feel even more outrageous in real life.
I have two middle names, as does my older brother, and I’ve always really liked it to be honest.
Whenever I tell people my full name they always say it sounds really sophisticated and fancy and in general people find it really interesting that I have two middle names
I probably wouldn’t give my children two, though, purely because I think it’s more difficult for a name to flow well when it has two middles and sometimes I think it’s unnecessary. The only reason I have two is because they’re the names of my two grandmothers ([name_f]Kathleen[/name_f] and [name_f]Lily[/name_f]). If names are honoring people or it flows really well, I think it’s fine.
I think it really depends on how well it flows. I usually prefer just one middle name.