Middle names

I once went to a christening where 6 baby girls and one boy were being baptised. The first five girls all had Louise as their second name, and the sixth was Louise with nothing else! One could hear the muffled chuckles by the time the vicar got to number 4.

Both my children have two names . Double barrel surnames have become more popular for children today because there parents are not married . So most unmarried parents decide to give there children both surnames . No arguments who's last name is going on the birth certificate .

Our granddaughters each have three forenames. The second ones are names from both sides of the family. I was particularly touched that they gave the elder one my mum's name as her second name. My husband and I, children of the 50s. each only have one name. I longed for a middle name and invented one when I was at primary school. When my mum saw it on my savings certificate book she got it taken off. We gave our son a middle name from my family but wish we'd given him a third.

I've been doing a lot of family history lately and it really helps if people have a middle name, particularly if their surname is "Smith" or "Jones". Think of your descendants!!

I have two first names as do both my children. two of my six grandchildren have two names-1 to carry a family name on. One also has a hyphenated first name. All are shortish names.

I have only one name which I never liked. As a reaction to this, I have given my children three first names so that they have a choice. None have so far changed their first name but I have several friends who did just that when they were younger and they use their second name rather than their first.

I haven't got a middle name, I've got a double-barrelled first name I gave both my children middle names, my daughter now has a double barrelled surname. Lol.

I don't have a middle name, my mother thought my first name too long to saddle with a middle name also but I was/am the only one of my friends who doesn't have a middle name so I gave my son & daughter two middle names each!

I have three, my fiasco has one. So on average we're average.

I think it’s best to have more than one. Then you have an element of choice about what you are called. What if you only have one and you don’t like it?

I have a middle name but never bother using it. So does my husband. They seem a waste of time really. Our daughter just has one name, nice and simple.

I have 2 names, as did my husband. All our children did, until the 5th, and he has 3. All my grandchildren and great grandchildren have 2 names.

All our children have three first names, largely because DH said it would look better on the international cricket scoreboard!

Our children have mostly given their children three first names, but three of our GC only have two.

All in my family have two fore name grandparents on both sides, parents, me, children, grandchildren it’s a bit of a insurance policy if you don’t
Ike one you can adopt the other
My mum disliked her first name (which was her mums name) so she was only ever known by the second name
My paternal grandad had two names but was known by a third which he didn’t have and I had an uncle Arthur Charles who was only ever called Joe ?

Going back several generations in both our families and several generations, everyone invariably had 2 first names.

My family were London poor, DH's, a small town tradesman, postman and agricultural labourers, so we had no pretensions to gentility.

Gwyneth

Double barrelled surnames so pretentious! I can see the reasoning behind two forenames particularly if people want to include family names. I have only one name and am perfectly happy with it. Much simpler when completing forms etc.

They're not pretentious to the Spanish. I rather like their idea. They take the first surname of the father and the first of the mother and put them together. So both parents are involved with the naming.

I am a Scot and have my granny's maiden surname as my middle name - much to my horror !

Double barrelled surnames so pretentious! I can see the reasoning behind two forenames particularly if people want to include family names. I have only one name and am perfectly happy with it. Much simpler when completing forms etc.

I am a Scot and have my grandmothers maiden surname as my second name which is quite common.

Just read the posts from Scotland and being just south of the border maybe that's how the girls in the family had their mums or grandmothers maiden name. Some of the family way back followed what I was told was the Scottish pattern First boy paternal grandfather s name second boy maternal grandfather and the same for the girls and so on down.
I was also lead to believe that in some farming communities the woman had to prove she was fertile before marriage and if the first child was a boy he was given the mothers maiden name as a sername so he could inherit if her brothers died.
My uncle's fathers name was an example of this he was the eldest child and down on birth certificate and census as such but his sername was his mothers' maiden name.

My husband and I only have one.
My mum and her sister had two my father one but his sisters two. Both our children and their offspring have two.No double-barreled names just one.
Never thought of it before but my paternal grandfather had one all his brothers and sisters two now I wonder why.
My mother hated her middle name which was her grandmothers maiden name which was often done in my county. Also, some of the children had surnames as first names often the mothers maiden name which was very confusing. I even had a John Johnston when I was at school.

My middle name was the maiden surname of one of my grandmothers. It is quite common in Scotland to give girls a family surname as a middle name.

The disadvantage is that you could not usually decide to use it as your preferred name, as you might if your middle name was another girls name.

The funny thing is that, I think as an import from America, some Scottish surnames, such as Cameron or Mackenzie, are now used as girls names and my middle name is one of these, so you'd never meet a granny with that as her first name, but you might meet a little girl with that name.

Could be a Scottish thing indeed. I have my mother’s maiden name for my middle name, my mother had her mother’s maiden name as did my granny.

My grandchild has four Christian names. I and my daughter's have one name.

In my mother’s extended family everyone has one of the ancestors’ surnames as a middle name. My mother has one of them. It’s most helpful when researching ancestors! I have no middle name, my first name is an unusual one and I’m not sure what would sound OK with it really.