It could be a generational idea - my godparents recently welcomed a daughter, named [name_f]Ivy[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f]. [name_f]Marie[/name_f] is my godmother’s middle name, her mother’s middle name, my godfather’s mother’s middle name, and my godfather’s sister’s middle name. They chose it because, for the most part, every first born/only female on both sides had [name_f]Marie[/name_f] as a middle name.
[name_f]My[/name_f] mother’s family is similar with [name_f]Anne[/name_f] - my great grandmother was [name_f]Lillian[/name_f], my grandmother has [name_f]Anne[/name_f] as a middle name, my aunt has [name_f]Anne[/name_f], my mum has [name_f]Ann[/name_f], and my cousin has [name_f]Anne[/name_f].
Tradition can be a very, very big thing for some, which would explain the overabundance of [name_f]Marie[/name_f], [name_f]Anne[/name_f], [name_f]Louise[/name_f], [name_f]Claire[/name_f], [name_f]Rose[/name_f], etc in the middle spot.
Another, could be as simple as a lack of originality. I was born in 1995, and, most of my female classmates had [name_f]Rose[/name_f], [name_f]Mary[/name_f], [name_f]Anne[/name_f], [name_u]Lynn[/name_u], [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] or [name_f]Marie[/name_f] as their middle name;
[name_f]Cecilia[/name_f] [name_f]Mary[/name_f]
[name_f]Tabitha[/name_f] [name_u]Lynn[/name_u]
[name_f]Emily[/name_f] [name_f]Rose[/name_f]
[name_f]Brooklin[/name_f] [name_f]Anne[/name_f]
[name_f]Jacqueline[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f]
[name_f]Danielle[/name_f] [name_u]Lynn[/name_u]
[name_f]Brittany[/name_f] [name_u]Lynn[/name_u] [name_f]May[/name_f]
and so on and so forth.
Thanks to two courses I took in grade 11 that involved names ([name_f]Media[/name_f] Studies, our teacher had us do a name background assignment to introduce ourselves, and in Living and Working with Children, we had to actually do a paper on our favourite names and discuss our own names), I learned that, for the most part, every girl in my school had one of 6 middle names, and the answers they received from their parents were similar to ‘It was all we could think of’ or ‘It’s a family name’.