want to give their baby a middle name??? I don´t understand why...you don´t actually use the middle name in daily life, do you??? Or is this smt religious??? PS I am from the Netherlands and middle names are out of fashion and have been for 30 years or so...
2006-12-04 11:40:07 · 30 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Baby Names
roy40372 Why do you assume I live in the USA ??? Just because I found this website???
2006-12-04 12:01:03 · update #1
My husband doesn't have a middle name (he's from Germany and grew up in was used to be East Berlin). He always jokes about how they were too poor to afford a middle name for him and his siblings. Maybe middle names are a sign of wealth... When he moved here and we started dating, he said he wanted a middle name--it's more "American" to have a middle name--so my best friend and I got together to come up with a few names that sounded good with his name. We let him pick, so now he has an unofficial middle name.
I have to agree with previous posts: It isn't a matter of "fashion" in America. I think it's a custom, just like having Christmas trees, sending Valentine cards, and shooting off fireworks on our national holiday.
I have a unique first name, so I don't HAVE to use my middle name or initial to set myself apart, but I do anyway. I use my middle initial because I like my signature better with it. I suppose that is, in a way, "fashion," but I'm not what you'd call a trendy person...
Sometimes kids use middle names because they hate their first names, or because their first names are used to tease them.
In Arab culture, the names signify relationships: "children are given two middle names: their father's first name and their grandfather's first name" (Wikipedia). Wikipedia actually has a lot of good information about middle names in general.
2006-12-08 11:03:36 · answer #1 · answered by xgravity23 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I didn't know that names were supposed to be a fashion statement. Well, I guess it's just a thing that "always was". It's not religious and a lot of people use their middle names in their daily lives - some people even use it instead of their first names. It's just something that some people do.
2006-12-04 13:04:53 · answer #2 · answered by princess_j2006 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think it's only in America that it's so common to have middle names. I'm from India, I don't know anybody there who has a middle name. I don't either. Middle names are useful sometimes if you don't like your first name. But, if people want to have a middle name, who cares.Let them. More to fill out on forms :)
2006-12-04 18:06:17 · answer #3 · answered by hipeople354 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not religious...It's just standard procedure.
Middle names serve the purpose of clarifying who you're referring to. For example, there's only one world famous Michael Jackson...However, here in the U.S., there are probably 100,000 different Michael Jacksons. Knowing that one of them is Michael David Jackson helps greatly. I think that the trend may end up coming back in the Netherlands...Our population is becoming so large that we may, in fact, need to start using four names to be able to tell us all apart.
Many people use their middle names regularly. My father, for example, shares his first name with his father. In order to keep them separate during conversations, they started calling my dad by his middle name, and it has stuck, ever since.
2006-12-04 11:52:22 · answer #4 · answered by abfabmom1 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
They're just something popular in the US. People in this country (and maybe others) sometimes have 2 or 3 middle names. I think that's a bit much.
2006-12-07 07:58:38 · answer #5 · answered by mld122979 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, I think that middle names are a way for parents to make their child's name unique. Although, I am one of those people that don't have a middle name I have always thought that because it is a way to conform with American society that I would give my child their own middle name. I think it is just a nice way to allow a child to have their own unique identity.
2006-12-04 16:14:10 · answer #6 · answered by shortydolphin 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I like middle names. It gives the child the choice to choose which name to go by.
I knew a girl back in high school whose name I didn't know for a while because half the class called her Deborah and the other half called her Shirley. I thought somebody had gotten their wires crossed, so I asked her myself and she explained that her name was actually Deborah Shirley and that she preferred to be called Shirley but would respond to both names. She actually gave people the choice as to what to call her - kinda cool.
2006-12-04 15:08:37 · answer #7 · answered by Leah D 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
something special, tradition to carry one of the parents names plus have a new name too. Its our tradition in our German/Hungarian/Danish-Canadian family. My good Chinese friends also have middle names. Our French-Canadian Prime Ministers as well as Scottish-Canadian and other Canadian Prime Ministers also had middle names and extra middle names.
Also, for very common names, like David Smith, a middle name can help distinguish which David Smith. In my area, there are 6 David Smiths. With middle names, we know which one is which one, thank God! :) LOL
2006-12-04 11:51:37 · answer #8 · answered by million$gon 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I always sign my name with my middle name. Our family tradition is using a parents first name as the baby's middle name.
2006-12-04 11:47:15 · answer #9 · answered by Katie Girl 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are still very popular is the U.S. I only know a couple people who don't have one. I think you should except this tradition as I am sure that there are traditions from the Netherlands that we Americans would view as wierd or old fashioned.
2006-12-04 12:02:43 · answer #10 · answered by lil_cookie_15 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋