Thoughts/Experiences with Double Middles and/or Hyphenated FNs

Girl Names
1

I am seriously considering doing a double mn now with my baby girl (due this month) so I can use both my maiden name and honor my maternal grandmother. I have a lot of questions though.

*Has anyone ever had a hospital hassle them about doing a double mn on the birth certificate, or is it common enough that no one will bat an eye? (If it matters to you, I am in Arkansas.)
*What do you put when filling out info forms about your child, like for school/medical info? [name]Do[/name] you pick one middle or put both if there’s room?
*Anything else you feel is pertinent for me to know before/about doing a double mn??

My other question is about hyphenated fns. First let me say, I am NOT doing a hyphenated fn AND a double mn; it will be one or the other. I’ve had a couple berries tell me their DDs have a hyphenated fn and it’s not been a problem. So let me know if you have experiences with this too. Here are my questions:

*I’ve read that unless you “smoosh” the name together, the part after the hyphen isn’t even “really” there (like [name]Anna[/name]-[name]Maria[/name] vs. [name]Annamaria[/name]). What are your thoughts on this? The name I want to use looks much better hyphenated than smooshed in my opinion ([name]Anna[/name]-[name]Frances[/name], if you’re wondering), so I need to know if the 2nd name will even be officially there.
*Does it drive you crazy having to spell the name for people or having to say “[name]Anna[/name]-hyphen-[name]Maria[/name]”? Does it drive your child crazy?
*Anything else you want to tell me about hyphenated fns??

Many thanks as I near the end of this naming journey! You all have already helped me so much!!

2

I can’t really answer any of your questions, sorry, but I will be watching this! I’d love to hear the answers of this for myself, as I plan to use two MNs myself, and a few hyphenated FNs (like [name]Anne[/name]-[name]Sophie[/name]) have been on my radar lately… I hope you get lots of replies! :slight_smile:

3

All of my daughters have double middle names and I’ve never had a problem with it except on some certain forms. I’m in Pennsylvania, but the hospital didn’t bat an eye. I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that. On forms, if there is room, I write their full names. If there’s not, I only one write their second middle name. I don’t think it’s a big deal at all. Middle names don’t come up much in life, I think you’ll have no problem with it at all.

4

[name]Hi[/name]! I actually prefer [name]Anna[/name] [name]Frances[/name] as a first name to [name]Anna[/name]-[name]Frances[/name]. Kind of like [name]Mary[/name] [name]Jane[/name]. That’s what my friend does with her name. Hyphen names just never look as nice to me. I don’t know anyone with a double mn. However, I am definitely doing two middle names! For school/medical/job/whatever info, a suggestion would be if your name was [name]Anna[/name] [name]Jane[/name] [name]Lauren[/name] [name]Brown[/name] ([name]Brown[/name] is the last name) and it gets to be too much to write out the two middle names, not enough room, etc., to write [name]Anna[/name] [name]Jane[/name] L. [name]Brown[/name] or [name]Anna[/name] J. [name]Lauren[/name] [name]Brown[/name].

5

@eckles7: I know what you mean about the “look” of hyphenated fns and rather agree with you. My issue with this particular name is that [name]Anna[/name] is so common by itself, so I feel like at least officially hyphenating the name [name]Anna[/name]-[name]Frances[/name] ups the chances she will actually be called the whole name without her having to tell everyone. Of course, this only holds true if schools and stuff recognize the hyphenated name. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this; every little bit gives me something to think about!

@nosamanthas: Thanks for your view on double mns! Good to know.

@ash: I love [name]Anne[/name]-[name]Sophie[/name] too and so many other [name]Anne[/name]/[name]Anna[/name] combos!

6

I like the idea of two MNs but I have never had a child so I don’t know exactly what I will do when the time comes. I think it depends too on your LN. Mine is very boring so I think 2 MNs spices it up. If your LN is very long it might get all jumbled up. I have known people with 2 MNs and they do something very similar to what pp said and use and initial on legal documents. One that comes to mind actually went by his second MN so he signed everything J. F. [name]Alan[/name] [name]Walker[/name]. So I think they could always just write an initial for the name or names that they don’t use :slight_smile:

7

@dillonsfan01- You’re right, I think the double mn works better with short and sweet lns, and both my ln and my maiden (aka 2nd mn) are short, easy one syllable names.

8

I have a double name. However, it is my first name and my middle name. I have always gone/been called by both. I can’t answer your question on the hospital, birth certificate, etc situation. But I will say that I always wished my first name was a double name. At the doctors office and on class lists I was always listed as “[name]Mary[/name]” I was incredibly shy and would never correct anybody so my mom would often have to say something. I never liked being called just “[name]Mary[/name]” so I understand your “[name]Anna[/name]” concerns. When I got married, at the SS office I ended up dropping my maiden name in order to keep my name the way I am called. If I ever want to change my name legally to be a double first name, I would have to go through the court…which I may end up doing one day. As far as my knowledge you can have two first names and they do not have to be smooshed together or hyphenated
I used to babysit for a little girl named AnnaClaire. Her first name was legally AnnaClaire…no hyphen or space. and she had a middle name.
The best advice I can pass along is to def do a hyphenated first name if you go with [name]Anna[/name] [name]Frances[/name]. I know doing [name]Anna[/name] as a first and [name]Frances[/name] as a middle and just calling her by both was not mentioned in your post, but I just wanted to give you my own experience as having a double name that way and always wishing it was a double first name.

9

@maris: That is very helpful info, and I totally see your point! I will def hyphenate or smoosh together; leaning toward hyphenating. I don’t mind the look of AnnaFrances, but I think on school and medical records, etc., it would appear Annafrances, and I don’t care for that.

10

Here is where I’m getting my fear about the use of the hyphen not being legit. This quote is from [name]Abby[/name] Sandel of AppellationMountain, from one of the blogs she wrote (link below). This was one of her comments to someone who suggested using a hyphen rather than smooshing the names together:

“I’m not sure why this is true, but hyphens are not universally honored in the US. No hyphenated names appear in the Social Security Administration data, so I assume most databases haven’t been built to accommodate them. You can soldier on, and probably convince most of the world to include the hyphen in [name]Ava[/name]-[name]Jane[/name], but if you smoosh ‘em up, well … Avajane it is.”

Very interesting! It sounds like the berries who have responded about their children’s hyphenated names haven’t had problems though, so that’s encouraging!

11

I don’t have any experience with hyphenated names, but one of my children has two middles.

The hospital gave us no trouble whatsoever with the birth certificate, we had no problems with the Social Security office either. All of the paperwork came back 100% correct.

The most trouble we have is with doctor’s offices who have computerized systems that are only setup to recognize first, middle, last. In these cases I always use the first middle and omit the second. It really wouldn’t be a problem to use the second and omit the first though. As long as you are consistent about which name you use your doctors will easily be able to cross-reference charts and such. Honestly, they really don’t care what you use and in my experience, they really don’t even care that another middle name exists as long as the medical records are the same.

I definitely would choose which “version” of the name to use and stick to it though. I did have some trouble when I married and changed my name, because one of my doctors just tagged the married name to the old records, while others were only given my married name. I don’t actually blame the office that did this; I had seen this doctor since I was a teen and nobody in the office knew who I was by the married name! But it was a bit of a hassle looking up my records, sending copies to other docs, and that kind of thing, until everyone got the same name in the system. It’s less of a concern with a middle name, but it could raise a “red flag” if one office has to send records to another office and the middle name doesn’t match. Hopefully that will never happen but it’s likely to be an emergency if it does, and that’s definitely not the time to get into a hassle about whether that aspect of the paperwork is correct.

Now I don’t know if our son will have trouble when he goes to get his driver’s license, but it would seem if the SSA can deal with two middles the BMV can as well. Big assumption though, LOL. All in all, the two middles are not a huge issue for us so far and we’re considering two middles for the next little guy as well. Good luck with your decision!

12

Oh, I can answer this so well. Ahaha.

Okay, I have double middle names AND a hyphen LAST name.

Double Middle Names:
I don’t think my mom had any issue with putting on the certificate, but I’m not sure.

Personally, I love the two middle name thing. I feel like it just adds more to my…essence, if you will. [name]Love[/name] love love it.
Now, on my health card, I only have the initial of the first middle name, S. Why? I’m guessing the don’t have an option for two so they just use the first. I think this happens a fair bit with legal documents like that. It doesn’t bother me, and it’s really not a big deal. I’ve had no issues with it yet.

When filling out forms, I just fit them both in. The first middle name is…8 letters long and the second is…6. There’s usually space for both. Some times there isn’t so I just put the first.

I think your child will love having two, because it’s special and rare. I’m the only one in my family with the double middle names, and I love it a lot.

Hyphenated names:
My last names are hyphenated, so I can’t give a very accurate answer, but! I do know that it gets annoying having to say “hyphen” usually because when you finish spelling the first name, people assume there’s nothing else after. I’ve had people spell both last names together. (Mostly happens due to my poor way of explaining)
I think having a hyphened first name would be rather irksome. And people will definitely try to get away with just calling her [name]Anna[/name] instead of [name]Anna[/name]-[name]Maria[/name]. If you want her to be called [name]Anna[/name]-[name]Maria[/name], probably better to put [name]Annamaria[/name], or [name]Anamaria[/name].

If you like the hyphenated name thing, why not just use the second part as the first middle name instead?
So for example: [name]Anna[/name] [name]Maria[/name]-Secondmiddlename Lastname. Then just call her [name]Anna[/name] [name]Maria[/name]? That way you’ll use a middle name that’s virtually never used, and get to call the name you want? But then this would lead to her being called [name]Anna[/name] in school and such…but that’s easy to correct. My brother doesn’t go by his first name, he goes by his second, and his school refers to him accordingly.

13

@saracita: Thanks for that advice. So if I do a double mn, I need to start thinking about which one I will go with on medical records, etc.
@east93: Good to hear how you enjoy your double mn! I have decided however that if I do [name]Anna[/name]-[name]Frances[/name], I will either hyphenate or smoosh (AnnaFrances), leaning toward hyphenating. [name]Anna[/name] is pretty common so if I do it, I am set on setting it apart by somehow “attaching” [name]Frances[/name] to it. So far, others who have children with hyphenated fns don’t seem to be bothered by it, so I’m encouraged by that. If I use my other top name ([name]Juliana[/name]–which is slightly more likely), I have decided to go for the double mn so I can honor two different family members. Thanks for your two cents!

14

I like 2 MNs! I have 2, and when filling out forms I put my initials smooshed together (MC) or leave off the C (M). On my school records, only the M shows up.
I tend to not like hyphened names, because I always think that something would happen to the poor other name! And I think calling a kid by 2 names would be more of a hassle, no matter how beautiful. If you think of how almost all names get shortened into nicknames, [name]Anna[/name]-[name]Frances[/name] would normally be [name]Anna[/name].

15

@characternamer: What happens to the “poor other name” is my concern. I don’t want to do it if [name]Frances[/name] is not even really going to “be there,” you know? I know what you mean about calling her by 2 names; that’s why I’m trying to see if I can get comfortable with or not by the time she gets here, b/c if I do the hyphen thing, I want to actually call her by the full name, and let a nn evolve over time if it does. However I know a little [name]Annamaria[/name] and an [name]Annmarie[/name] and [name]Emily[/name]-[name]Ann[/name], and they all go by both names, and it’s just “who they are” at this point. It doesn’t feel like a hassle. But i’m not sure if it’s for me or not, we’ll see! I am in the south btw, and I guess double fns are more popular here than some places.

16

my little bro has a double middle name and it has never caused any problems at all. In your case I would say to just have [name]Anna[/name] (my name BTW) as her first name and [name]Maria[/name] as her middle. She and you could use [name]Anna[/name] [name]Maria[/name] all the time without any problems. A girl at my camp used to go by this and everyone knew how to spell it.