What is the relevance or importance of a middle name?

Question

I would like to change mine to the correct spelling, of which is in my family tree.

Answer 1

They help identify which "John Adams" you mean.

They can be used to keep a mother's maiden name alive, which in turn gives us genealogists a clue.

As to changing it - go ahead. Just tell the DMV, your employer and your credit card company you found out the spelling you gave them was wrong. As long as you don't do it to defraud someone, you can change it without going through a court. Women do it all the time, when Miss Mary Kay Jones marries and becomes Mrs. Mary Jones Smith.

Answer 2

Hey B Christo,

"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, often abbreviated by its possessor to the middle initial or omitted entirely in everyday use.

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."

much more information at the site below

Answer 3

There are also religious and family reasons for multiple names. Prussian males in the 1800s usually had 3 first names; for example, Wilhelm Karl Frederich. The names are usually one of the father or grandfather's names plus the names of the Godparents. Adding to the fun of German research, the child wasn't always called by their "first" name. Any of the three could become their common name in the family.

There are other places and times where the naming "had to" follow a specific pattern; for example, first son named for father's father, second son for father, third son for mother's father, etc.

However they're acquired, multiple names are used to identify the individual.

Answer 4

Originally midddle names were used to distinguish people with the same first and last names for the purpose of eliminating confusion. For example two different John Morgans. So instead, they gave a middle name such as Pierpont, so now we know the difference between John R. Morgan, some regular guy who lived in a small town, and JP Morgan the industrialist.

Another reason is for pride of family roots, such as John Alden Carpenter, the 20th Century Classical composer. By using this middle name his family is telling those in the social register that he is an Alden, one of the Mayflower families. Many such families will deliberately parcel out middle names to make sure that all their supposedly blue-blood connections are announced in each generation; this is a custom that is not likely to die out soon.

Looking only at the history of the U.S. if you look at the four primary waves of British immigrants to the new world you will discover that the four types gave out different kinds of middle names - the Scots-Irish in the backwoods and around Kentucky would use middle names names like Andrew, Charles and Robert, the Puritans would use names like Sarah and Nehemiah, the Chesapeake Bay Tidewater Cavaliers would use names like Arlington or Ormsby to celebrate blue-blood connections, and the Dutch/New York influenced areas would use names like John, Mary, Elizabeth, Peter and Michael, as theirs was a mixed cultural area with many Catholics. You can see this differential usage would be a great tool for genealogists to determine whether a particular Johnston was Southern or from New England, because their middle names might give that away. In other areas in the U.S., some men have a middle initial that has no meaning. In fact Y.A. Tittle the quarterback back in the day has two such names - neither of the first two initials mean anything at all. Harry Truman's middle initial S is another example - when they gave him the oath of office upon the death of Rooselvelt, the Chief Justice tried to call him 'Harry Shipman Truman' and Truman corrected this to 'Harry S Truman'. So in some instances even that 'Null' middle name can be a tool of the genealogist.

This practise of using middle name types based on region is slowly being eroded with parents nowadays giving children names not formerly associated with their culture, such as Alonzo Phillip Jones (neither of the two first names here is Welsh but the last name is), or where somebody reinvents his/herself by changing the first and middle names - baseball player Khalil Thabit Greene - a guy with Irish or English heritage whose first and middle names were taken from the B'hai faith.

Forgive me for not using examples from the Mid-East, Eastern Europe, Africa or those relating to Jewish or Chinese/oriental ancestry. I am just sharing the areas that I really have knowledge in. Hopefully others will fill in the blanks.

If you want to change your name to agree with the correct historical spelling, do so by all means. My sister went to court and reverted the spelling of our family's last name to the authentic spelling used in the old country in the 19th Century. I have at times seriously thought about adding a fourth name that would celebrate my heritage/notorious ancestors better than the two other names actually given me.