What's your take on middle names?

I see middle names' purpose solely as honoring the family (or perhaps a significant event/place). I have to admit, I'm surprised how many people just seem to use something out of thin air. This may be influenced by the fact that my two brothers both have family middle names, and mine is random. My mom has expressed disappointment in herself for not giving me a family name as well, and I agree with her.

I guess I see them as placeholders, so you may as well make someone happy by honoring them. But I'm curious to hear from the other side, too -- were you just going for aesthetically pleasing sound? Meaning? What's the story behind your kiddos' middle names?

That said, my first children is Ronan Edgar___. We broke naming tradition for him; according to my husband's family, he should have been William Edgar. (My husband adamantly did not want to continue this tradition.) Edgar is also DH's middle name -- it is DH's great-grandmother's maiden name (Susan Edgar).

My daughter is Beatrix Carol ___, after my mother. She was either going to have my middle name or my mom's. While I'm not crazy about the flow of the name (or the name Carol itself, for that matter), it was very important to me to honor my mom.

luckymomma wrote:I see middle names' purpose solely as honoring the family (or perhaps a significant event/place). I have to admit, I'm surprised how many people just seem to use something out of thin air. This may be influenced by the fact that my two brothers both have family middle names, and mine is random. My mom has expressed disappointment in herself for not giving me a family name as well, and I agree with her.

I guess I see them as placeholders, so you may as well make someone happy by honoring them. But I'm curious to hear from the other side, too -- were you just going for aesthetically pleasing sound? Meaning? What's the story behind your kiddos' middle names?

That said, my first children is Ronan Edgar___. We broke naming tradition for him; according to my husband's family, he should have been William Edgar. (My husband adamantly did not want to continue this tradition.) Edgar is also DH's middle name -- it is DH's great-grandmother's maiden name (Susan Edgar).

My daughter is Beatrix Carol ___, after my mother. She was either going to have my middle name or my mom's. While I'm not crazy about the flow of the name (or the name Carol itself, for that matter), it was very important to me to honor my mom.

I agree with you. For me, the role of the middle name is to honour your family or someone special in your life. My daughter, Ada Valerie was named after an elderly neighbour (Ada) and my mom (Valerie). I'm really happy with my last minute decision....everytime my mom sees Ada she asks 'What's your middle name?' so I know she's proud. I like that they have this special connection.

My dilemma now is what to name our baby due any day. I have chosen Ross David after my brother (his middle name is Ross) and my dad (David). Easy! However, I haven't been getting the best reponse - people make a Friends connection (I have never watched this show so I have no association) and feel David is boring.

For a girl, we're torn between Iris and Greta. My grandmother was Greta Frances Mason but Iris has no family connection... I just like it. So here are my options:

Greta Mason
Greta Frances
Greta Anne (after my mother-in-law)
Greta Christina (after both grandmothers)

Iris Greta
Iris Mason
Iris Anne (Anna)

Do you think Anna is close enough to Anne to say 'we've named her after you'?

I see the middle name as the frosting on the cake-fun, frivolous, and personally, I like middle names that are very long-four syllables! So my preference would be:
Greta Christiana
Iris Anastasia
You don't have to write your child's full middle name very often. You can just put their initial down most of the time. But they have this lovely secret middle name that is such a surprise.

momanie wrote:
My dilemma now is what to name our baby due any day. I have chosen Ross David after my brother (his middle name is Ross) and my dad (David). Easy! However, I haven't been getting the best reponse - people make a Friends connection (I have never watched this show so I have no association) and feel David is boring.

For a girl, we're torn between Iris and Greta. My grandmother was Greta Frances Mason but Iris has no family connection... I just like it. So here are my options:

Greta Mason
Greta Frances
Greta Anne (after my mother-in-law)
Greta Christina (after both grandmothers)

Iris Greta
Iris Mason
Iris Anne (Anna)

Do you think Anna is close enough to Anne to say 'we've named her after you'?

I like Ross! Don't let people deter you. That show ended years ago, and our kids will have no idea what it is.

I don't know about the Anne/Anna. I really wanted Carolyn (instead of Carol) for my daughter, but decided in the end that if I were going to honor my mom I really wanted it to be the same. I LOVE Iris and Greta, so that's tough. I think Greta works with Anne or Christina -- if it's important to your DH to honor his mom, I'd use Anne. While I can see that Anne is not as fantastic with Iris, I still think it's good. As is Christina.

I think I slightly prefer Iris, but the family connection may sway me toward Greta. Either way you can't go wrong! Be sure and let us know.
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Yup, I'm like you - I like middle names to honor family. My own middle name is my Grandma's name and that is so special to me.

I don't think it's necessary to use a family name as a middle name. I feel like the middle spot is also a good place for something funky that you wouldn't want in the first spot. However, while it's easy for me to say that, I don't think I would ever actually use something that wasn't a family name. Unless I was using a family name for the first name. My middle name is a family name, which I've always loved. I'm giving my baby a family middle name, too. I guess I'm saying I don't think it's that big of a deal in theory, but in practice, I wouldn't use anything but a family name.

I have my mom's name as my middle name and I don't care for it. My idea for middle names is to use whatever you want- whatever sounds good with the first name or maybe using a more frivolous name like a previous poster suggested..

Family names aren't important to me. Maybe if it sounded really good with the first name you chose and you truly like the name, but if not, why not use another name that you love? There are so many great names out there.

I agree with the family-honoring concept, but sometimes that just doesn't give you much to work with. Thank God my mother didn't decide to name me after either grandmother (Myrtle and Ernestine). And my grandmother's last name? Cox. Not much better. As much as I adore my grandmother, even she loathes her name; instead I've opted to use her maiden name, Warren. First name for a boy, middle name for a girl (although there's an argument to be made for Warren as a girl's first name, I think.)

My daughter, Elizabeth Rae, has that middle name after her great-aunt Rachel. She was always called Rae. My maiden name is Gray, so we named my son Elliot Gray. The rhyming/matching names is coincidental, and works since Elizabeth is Lizzie. For my daughter Vera, we wanted her to have a longer/more popular middle name to counteract Vera a bit. I wanted Vera Jane but that's too short and doesn't give her much of an alternative, should she not like her name. I've always loved Addie and we almost settled on Adeline, but that's old-fashioned too. Addison was too popular. I think Anna is close enough to Anne, by the way. Go for it!

Perhaps I'm alone, but even in the middle I'm averse to naming-after for my child's name (it's not that I think naming-after is awful, just that I don't want to do it for my child)... I just like my child to have her own name that feels like "hers"... For me, middles just can be anything - they should sound good with the other names - it's a second opportunity to choose a name. I thought I'd go for something really funky/different/exciting - a friend of a friend used Rocket with a traditional first - but I didn't go exciting like that. In theory, the middle is great for anything - it's a middle, after all, so it can honor (if that's your cup of tea), be a name that's just loved second to the first name, or something kind of "out there." Anything goes in my book!

My personal preference is for just one middle, but I know that 2 is also a common practice (it just makes forms a little more difficult). But getting to choose a 3rd name for a kid is something I definitely would enjoy! :-)