US First Name + Chinese Middle name?

Girl Names
1

we live in the US and I am Chinese and I am not sure the rules of picking a middle name. I learned that sometime people choose middle name to get a better flow from first name to last name.

But can I just pick a Chinese name as middle name so it can carry some sort of cultural heritage?

We want our baby to be called either First Name, or the Middle Name, but not First Name + Middle name at the same time but I’m not sure whether Middle name is always called after First name.

PS: I never people call others middle name but maybe I just don’t have enough exposure to that.

Please share your thoughts and advice~~ thanks

2

You can definitely use a Chinese middle name!

People usually are not called their first name + middle name together, unless they want to, but it’s not common. Then there are the people who choose to go by their middle name instead of their first, but other than that middle names aren’t really used much. Most people don’t even know other’s middle names (unless they’re really close or something). Most people (in [name_u]America[/name_u]) use middle names, but they are optional. You can do whatever you want with your child’s middle name, even give them two!

I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

3

Hello!

The short answers to your questions:

  • yes, you can totally just pick a Chinese name for a middle name to carry cultural heritage

  • unless you really wanted people to call the child First Name + Middle Name together, they wouldn’t automatically do it. Most people would call the child the name that was used when they were introduced, or else (if they’re just reading from a list of names) the first name. In a lot of cases, the middle name gets very little use unless the child or the parents make that effort.

The long answers:

There aren’t really any solid “rules” for picking middle names. You can pick zero, one, two, or more middle names for your child. You’re right that sometimes people use middle names to make the overall name flow nicely. People also sometimes use middle names to honour important people in their lives (relatives, friends, public figures they admire, fictional characters they love, etc.), or to honour their heritage like you’d like to do, or sometimes people just pick a middle name that they love on its own.

In most cases, middle names aren’t used very much - they appear on official documents and lists (like school registration), and sometimes the full name is announced (like at high school graduation or often in wedding ceremonies). That said, I know a few people who for various reasons are called just by their middle name - two of my cousins have the same first names as their fathers but because it would be confusing to have two Peters in one household, the father was called Peter and the son was called by his middle name. I don’t think it’s really common, but it’s definitely not unheard of.

Generally, unless the parents make an effort to get people to call a child by their first and middle name together, people don’t automatically do it themselves. For example, if there was a little girl named Laura Jane Smith, people would automatically call her Laura unless they found out that she preferred to be called Jane or Laura Jane.

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions that come up about naming. :slight_smile:

4

Thank you all for explaining that! It helps a lot.

5

Yep, what oregano and katerina said is correct. [name_m]Just[/name_m] wanted to add that I have a half-Chinese friend who has exactly that: an American/English first name and a Chinese middle name. I also have Korean, Japanese, [name_f]Indian[/name_f] and [name_f]El[/name_f] Salvadorean friends with the same thing; it seems to be a popular option for parents who have immigrated here.

6

During introduction, do people always give both first and middle name or or only in case they’d like to be called with middle name?
e.g. if somebody introduce himself like: “I’m [name_m]Edward[/name_m] [name_m]Johnson[/name_m]”, does it imply that he doesn’t have a middle name? or he might have but just doesn’t bother to tell you as he’d like you to call his first name only?

7

I think most people have explained it pretty well already–middle names are generally used in the US, but they certainly aren’t necessary, and are used for the reasons stated above (or before). Middle names are generally more on the superfluous side, I guess you could say? Like an extra bonus. Like one of the previous posters said, people generally don’t know someone else’s middle name unless they’re close, so no, if I were to meet an [name_m]Edward[/name_m] [name_m]Johnson[/name_m], I wouldn’t assume that he didn’t have a MN, just that it wasn’t shared. In general, most Americans don’t share their middle names unless it was a special occasion–as in a graduation, school application, or wedding ceremony, as the pp said, as well. It can be a subject of great interest in school children (I remember conversations that went like, “Oh, what’s your middle name? Oh, what’s yours?” etc.), but professionally, they’re generally not used all that much, and I’m not sure they have a ton of use, besides disambiguation (for example, [name_f]Anna[/name_f] [name_f]Madeleine[/name_f] [name_m]Smith[/name_m] is the only real easy way of telling that she’s different from [name_f]Anna[/name_f] [name_f]Zinnia[/name_f] [name_m]Smith[/name_m]), and I’ve heard it also helps with security, making it less easy for your identity to be stolen. I think the assumption, rather, is that everyone has a middle name, but they just don’t share it. I think people generally just introduce themselves as what they want to be called by. I think when someone is introducing someone else, especially in a professional setting, they’ll use the full first and last name, as in, “Oh, [name_m]Henry[/name_m], do you know [name_f]Amelia[/name_f] [name_m]Ferrars[/name_m]?” And then [name_f]Amelia[/name_f] can feel free to say, “Oh, please call me [name_f]Mia[/name_f]” or whatever. In a lot of scenarios, though, when someone introduces someone else, they’ll use whatever they’re familiar with (like introducing a friend to another friend, or a parent introducing a child), like, “[name_f]Nora[/name_f], I’d like you to meet my friend, [name_f]Addy[/name_f],” even if her full name is [name_f]Adelaide[/name_f] or [name_u]Addison[/name_u]. I think it’s just simpler that way. I knew a guy named Siont@y [name_m]Russell[/name_m] [name_m]Antonius[/name_m] [name_m]Ramon[/name_m] [name_m]Lewi[/name_m]$, which was his full name, and if we went around calling full names like that, it would be confusing and rather long and drawn out pretty quickly! So middle names are used, just not very often in everyday life, and I think it’s a lovely idea to use a Chinese middle name to honor family or your heritage. If she wants to be known by her Chinese name, she can, or she can be known as her American name.

Good luck!

8

Many thanks!