What is the reason for a middle name?

Question

What is yours

Answer 1

That's a name specifically designed to be used by your mother to instill fear.

When everything is cool...your mom would just call you by your first name. When you were moderately in trouble...she would call you by perhaps your first name and your middle initial...when you were in rather a large amount of trouble...she would pull out the big guns and use your entire name...with careful emphasis on your middle name...thereby striking immediate fear and panic into your heart....because we all know that that middle name serves no purpose but to be wielded by an angry mother.

Answer 2

My middle name is Thomas.

And I guess a good reason for the middle name (aside from the good explanations already given) is just so that people can have a more complex identity. Also, they can go by their middle name if they don't like their first name.

Several people in my family go by their middle names. I have sometimes thought about going by Tom, but my first name is already stuck with a lot of people, so I probably shouldn't. Plus, I have a unique first name, and when people say it, there is always a strong chance that they are talking to me.

Answer 3

Giving a baby a Middle name , as well as a First name has become a custom in the Western World. Some people view this as, perhaps, a 'safety net' in case they make a mistake with their choice of first name. The logic is that should someone intensely dislike their first name that they can simply use their middle name instead! There are no statistics available which provide any information of how often this situation occurs. Statistics do, however, reveal that approximately one person in ten regularly use their middle name.

Answer 4

Many people's names include one or more middle names, placed between the first given name and the surname. In the West, a middle name is effectively a second given name. In the United States there is usually only one middle name, abbreviated by its possessor to the middle initial.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Middle name

Despite their relatively long existence in the Western world, the phrase "middle name" was not recorded until 1835 in "Harvardiana", a periodical of the time. Since 1905, "middle name" gained a figurative connotation meaning a notable or outstanding attribute of a person. This figurative use is especially popular in films (see quotations in Wikiquote, sidebar).

The use of multiple middle names has been somewhat impeded recently by the increased use of computer databases that allow for only a single middle name or more commonly a middle initial in storing personal records, effectively depriving persons with multiple middle names of the ability to be listed in such databases under their full name. Especially in the case of government records and other databases that are used for legal purposes, this phenomenon has sometimes been criticized as a form of discrimination against people who carry multiple middle names for cultural or religious reasons.

In United States, the middle name is rarely used on official documents. The middle initial is used instead on most identity documents, passports, driver licenses, social security cards, university diplomas, and other official documents. Examples of this form include George W. Bush and John F. Kennedy.

Many people are not known by their first forename. This is often referred to as being 'known by the middle name' – but in fact such people do not consider their main forename to be a 'middle name' at all.

Answer 5

I don't have a middle name (and feel very left out because of it!) But I was always told that the reason for a middle name is that later on in life if you tire of your first name - you can always use your middle one.
A lot of people use their middle name as their most used one. It's more common than you think.
For other people it is a nuisance as it is one extra name to put on forms and things. My personal opinion is that anything more than 1 middle name is un-necessary!

Answer 6

Middle names are just to separate people a little more. My father-in-law wasn't given one when he was born, and as an adult male there were just too many men with his same name that he was asked to pick a middle name. He chose the letter H because he didn't know what else to pick.

Answer 7

I don't have a middle name, however I used the middle name on my son to avoid confusion between my husband and him. My husband's name is Rafael and he was so excited to name our baby after him. I hated that idea but since we couldn't agree on a name for boy or girl (we didn't know what was we having until he was born), we decided that if it was a boy, he would choose the name, and if it was a girl, I would choose it. Well, we had a boy and he named him after him (Rafael), but I added the middle name (Enrique) and that's the way we call him.

Answer 8

So you can tell the difference between John David Doe & John Michael Doe. I don't have a middle name.

Answer 9

...i think it is because we have a mom and a dad. The first name is usually what the mom named you and the second the dad OR maybe grand parents have a say to

... i like it, gives me an option. I have a middle name but i only use the first letter "M"

Answer 10

Ashley