Middle Names 2012: The New Connectors

June, Lark, Wren, Gray, Poe, and Ray are some middle names on my list.
Not sure how I feel now after seeing this post.

You should add Blythe to the girls’ list. I see that one a lot.

I only like Lark, Pearl, and Maeve from the girls’ list and Penn from the boys’. However, I’m positively obsessed with the name Gray. I’d nominate Fay as an addition, and Blythe was a good idea too.

Fern would make a great addition to the new connector list. I think Fern may have been a popular middle name over a century ago, but since I don’t know of statistics on middle names, I can’t verify that.

Like minorbeatrice, Lark and Wren are some of my favorite middle names, and I’m a little bummed that these could become the next Rose. But I’m done having kids and only come up with names for fun anyway so I guess it’s not worth dwelling on:)

With my real kids, I used family middle names. That way, even if I do use a connector middle name, at least it still has significance. My husband’s middle name is James, the same middle name as his Dad, and I would have used James for my son even though I know it’s a connector name. The only reason I didn’t use it is because I wanted to avoid the PJ initials. I didn’t want anyone calling my son PJ, We ended up using Robert, my husband’s first name, for our son’s middle name. Of course now that leaves the initials PR, but that’s not a big deal to me.

Poppy, Fay is already there. But I’m adding Blythe.

We used Claire for my daughter, but it had the added bonus of also being MY middle name, so we hit two birds with one stone. We almost used Kate.

We’ve used Rose and Grace for our girls middles…well the 2nd middle as both girls have 2 middle names and no.3 due in a few weeks will too. Never really been bothered that both Rose and Grace are popular ‘filler’ or connector names as both are very pretty, and not used in the front space.

Really like Faith and Pearlfrom the list – as usual names I like seem to be rising among the ranks!

For boys I like Fox, but then always find boys names hard. I like traditional mostly, but not that they are mega popular.

I was thinking of Maeve as a middle but Lane is a great idea too!

We love middle names with meaning. We gave our first three children family names in the middle. Our youngest child on earth as well as the baby we lost have middle names that have special meaning when connected to their first names.

We also tend toward more than one syllable in the middle, since our last name has only one syllable. We’ve used one syllable middle names, but only because it was meaningful and sounded “right”.

Grace needs to be added to the girls’ list, for sure.

How timely! Just last week I was commenting to my husband about how Wren is the new Ann.

I’ve seen a whole lot of the middle name “Jade” lately.

Also, seeing “Jade” as a middle name has made me more aware of the importance of initials – two of the babies I know with “Jade” as a middle name have first names that start with “B”! Oh dear.

I’m guilty of this myself. My son’s middle name is on the list. I think those of us with two-syllable last names lean toward one-syllable middle names to get a 3-1-2 or 2-1-2 pattern. As one set of middle names gets tired, we start looking for new ones. Almost all of these middles would be delightfully unexpected as first names!

My nephew is two days old and has been given the middle name Grey.

I agree about how refreshing it is when popular middles are used as a first instead. Although, I’m not a huge fan of some of these – Poe, Wren, Lark, Kai and Bliss are a bit too trendy for my taste.

BellaB – Grace is immediately what came to my mind too for a common girls option.

We used Rose, not realizing how popular it had become as a middle name. But I think we would have used it anyway. It honors two grandmas: Rosemary and Rosalie.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with connector middles. Many of them are very cute, and if they have meaning for you, who cares if others see them as “just” connectors?

I have a couple of these on my list for middles/first names for years. Blythe, Pearl & Fay. They all honour family.
Before thinking that someones middle name is just a filler, you could ask how they came to that name conclusion. It may just have significance or meaning to the parents.
But besides this pretty much all the above names are lovely regardless!

Too funny. We’ve chosen Faith as a middle name if our baby is a girl but as a family name to honor both grandmas (Hope & Charity).
I love a lot of the above names as first names as well as middle names.

I’ve been liking Joyce a lot as a connector lately, and I’ve heard it from a few others too.

Oh my sweet Blythe…this has been on our list for a first name forever! We only have a son so we have yet to use this lovely name. It is still not in the top 1000 but I am interested to see if it cracks it this year.

I love the name Colette Grey but my husband thinks Grey sounds masculine. Colette Monroe also to masculine for him, any pretty ideas?

Any suggestions on a good middle name to go with the first name Lilyanna?

My great-great grandmothers middle name was Belle so I guess it isn’t a completely new trend. The ones I am seeing more often are Claire, Greer, Lark, Wren, Pearl and Mae/May. I have a niece with the middle name Mae and a nephew with the middle name Ray, both siblings. One of my friends recently had a baby and her middle name is Kay, which I guess could be included with the trend. I also know someone else who gave their daughter the middle name Paige. Interesting post.