Why did you pick your child's middle name?
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
United States
October 19, 2010 11:40am CST
Does it have a meaning or did you just like the sound of it?
My oldest son's middle name is Michael.. I picked it because I like the name, but I do not like it shortened to Mike or Mikey so I would not choose it for a first name.. plus I liked the way it sounded with my son's first name.
My 2nd son's middle name is hubby's first name.. that is a tradition in hubby's family that the son's middle name will be the father's first name. Hubby's middle name is FIL's first name, and FIL's middle name is his father's first name. All the men in hubby's family have done this.
My daughter's middle name is Marie because it went well with her first name.
My 4 year old's middle name is Christopher.. because I like it, but I don't like it being shortened to Chris.
The youngest's middle name is James, that was my Godfather's name, he died when I was young. My foster mom (who was my Godfather's mother) always used to yell at me that I had so many boys but never named one after my Godfather. It was shortly after she died that I discovered I was pregnant with the youngest.. I figured it was time to give her what she wanted and name my son after my Godfather.
6 people like this
22 responses
@wazzupabby (8)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
My son's name is Ian Lorenzo which means God's gift, success. I have researched for different name meanings because I believe that what you name your child will somehow, be his future. (Yeah, I admit! I'm superstitious). :)
Today, everytime I call my son Ian, it always reminds me that he is a gift from God, and I always thank Him for my son.
@GardenGerty (157623)
• United States
20 Oct 10
I looked at name meanings as well. My son is Vincent Nolan--he conquers nobly. My daughter is Samantha Victoria--she is called by God to be victorious.
@Mosisa (96)
• Brazil
19 Oct 10
Me, my brother and sisters keep my mom´s family last name, in the middle. Usually people give the child a first name and the last name which is the father´s family name. My husband and I gave composed names for our kids. My kids don´t carry my mother´s family name. Their middle name is my last name and their last name is their father´s last name, do you understand?
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
19 Oct 10
My brother's son is named that way as well. His middle name is his mother's last name.
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
25 Mar 11
With my oldest I picked his middle name because my husband and I liked how it sounded with his first name (as well as last). Ironically his middle name is also my late FIL's first name, so he thought my husband and I named our oldest after him. This isn't the case, although I'm glad my FIL thought so before he passed as it sure made him a happy man.
When it comes to my youngest, neither my husband or I picked his first or middle name. Oh, I did try to come up with some, although I had a heck of a time, and did eventually find one my husband and I agreed on...or so I thought. However, it turned out neither of us liked it very much. And apparently neither did my in-laws. About a week or 2 before I gave birth my in-laws told my husband and I just what they thought about it. They further added that they had come up with the perfect name for our baby. I have to say I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of someone else naming my baby, even if it was my in-laws, but after my husband and I heard it, we couldn't help but fall in love with the way it sounded, so we went with it. And because we did our youngest son's middle name is the same as his late great-grandfather's first name, but I'm okay with that. LOL
Happy mylotting!
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
25 Mar 11
I think it's great to name children after family members. Only 2 of my kids have names like that.. but now you're making me wish I had given hubby his wish and named one of them after his grandfather.
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
19 Oct 10
I chose middle names for my children that I liked. For my oldest son that is called Ryan I decided on the middle names Alexander and Zebedee. It was Alexander the Great that I thought of. I thought of Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout. Then when I had my younger son I didn't know what to call him. I had the name Teo suggested to me and I said how about Leo. So I named him Leo. Then I gave him the middle names Andrew and Rodney. Andrew is a name I really like. Rodney is the name of his grandfather. Then when my daughter was born I called her Amber. I decided on Holly and Lauren for her middle names.
1 person likes this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
19 Oct 10
All of my children have hyphenated names like Stefan-Paul or Rachel-Ann. I usually use only the first name but when they were little and I was cross I would shout out their two first names. That meant that they had better come quickly as Mummy was cross. My son in the U.K. is Ryan-Sean and you know the reason why I will not call out the eldest son's name
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
19 Oct 10
Is that a cultural thing? I've seen that before.. like the singer Sean Paul who I believe is from Jamaica.
I used to live upstairs from a multicultural family. The mom was Jamaican and the dad was from Africa. All their children had common American first names, but African middle names. They used their American names at school, but their African names at home. Their youngest was named after the day of the week he was born on.. which was a Thursday. I don't know the proper spelling, but his name is Yow.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
20 Oct 10
Oh your kids are so lucky.. I LOVE Sean Paul!
While I was pregnant with my 4 year old I decided I wanted his name to start with an A. Both hubby's name and the oldest son's name start with J, both the twins start with T.. but I was the only A in the house. So I figured give the baby an A name and even things up. Of course when baby #5 came along that messed it up.. he's an M and the only M in the house.. and I am not having another one just to even things up again!
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
20 Oct 10
I know Sean-Paul. His grandparents lived close to me and he was very caring to them. Visiting frequenty when on the island and helped them financially. A very kind person.They are both deceased now. When he visted all the kids would run to him and he would take photos with them which thrilled them no end.
Yes, many children have hyphenated names. I really do not remember why I did it but it seemed right at the time
What is cultural is not calling your child by their first name. This is a hangover from slavery where people thought that if a bad spirit came to enter your child they would not know what chid to enter because although he was baptised with one name by using another name this would confuse the spirit. A baby would also be dressed in red to scare away any bad spirits.
This is not done so much now but used to happen so much 40 years ago in the rural parts of the Island - not the towns.
hat we had not reaised is that all of their names ended in the etters AN. And of course my husband's name was Ian.
What is cultural is not calling your child by their first name. This is a hangover from slavery where people thought that if a bad spirit came to enter your child they would not know what chid to enter because although he was baptised with one name by using another name this would confuse the spirit. A baby would also be dressed in red to scare away any bad spirits.
This is not done so much now but used to happen so much 40 years ago in the rural parts of the Island - not the towns.
hat we had not reaised is that all of their names ended in the etters AN. And of course my husband's name was Ian.
@Downwindz (2537)
• Netherlands
19 Oct 10
I think most chooses a middlename that goes well with the first name unless they have a family tradition. My middlename is a sort of a family name that runs in my mums family, everybody has this specific middle name - another way of connecting families which has gotten married into new families with new family names....
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157623)
• United States
20 Oct 10
I chose middle names that sounded good with the first. My son's middle name is Nolan, daughter's is Victoria. For the record, I do not like Vicky as a name, so that is why it is her middle name. If I had used it for a first name I would have shortened it to Tori. Hubby said he had never heard of it, so it got moved to middle name. My oldest granddaughter has my middle name. My daughter's best friend gave her daughter my daughter's middle name. We made a point NOT to name our kids after people, as my husband said, they are their own people not someone else. On the other hand, my daughter and her husband enjoy modifying names from the family for their children.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
20 Oct 10
I think a family name is nice, it carries importance and can make a person proud of their name and their heritage. I named my first after a baseball player.. but not because of the player, just because that was the first I'd heard the name and I loved the name.. it sounds so nice. He likes that he was named after a baseball player.
A friend of mine has a daughter named Victoria and they call her Tori. I do not like the shortened version of most typical names, like Michael, Christopher, Thomas, Jacob.. you get the idea. I had a friend who's son's name was Christopher, and she called him Topher.. I thought that was cute, but hubby didn't like it for our children.
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
19 Oct 10
We don't have a long standing tradition as far as naming the kids goes. At least not as far as I know. My sister and I were both given middle names after someone though. Mine was after my great grandmother. My sister's is our grandmother's first name. So with my kids I decided to carry on that tradition. Our oldest daughter's middle name is Leigh. I was trying to pick a middle name for her when I discovered that my grandmother and my husband's sister, both who had passed away in 1999 both had the middle name lee. One was spelled lee and one spelled lea. So I decided to give her the middle name but spelled it Leigh. Our other daughter's middle name is Nicole. I knew I wanted to name her Hailey, but none of the family names really went with that. So I gave her my best friend's name. We've been friends for almost 25 years. With my son I was going to try to name him after one of my grandfathers, but that left me with Frederick or Frank. I wasn't crazy about either. So I gave him my dad's middle name. My dad never got a son, so he was really touched. I hope that my kids will carry on the tradition in some way.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
19 Oct 10
One of your daughter's middle names is also my middle name. My mother almost gave me the middle name of Lynn... well you know my 1st name.. so you know how bad that would sound.. like the instrument, lol. I've never been real fond of my middle name.. but Lynn would have been worse.
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
20 Oct 10
My first son's middle name is dean, named for his uncle.My 2nd son's middle name is Joe named that because my middle name is Jo.
@bellis716 (4799)
• United States
21 Oct 10
Our son's middle name was selected because I thought it went well with the first name (a name I selected because I didn't think anyone in either my or my husband's family had that name). Our daughter got the middle name of Gaye because I liked it. At that time, 46 years ago, the name meant happy or joyful. Also, it was the name of my deceased sister.
@singlemommy (2955)
• United States
20 Oct 10
My daughter's middle name is Paige. I just always liked that name. When I was a kid I used to watch a show on tv and the actress who played on it's name was Paige, ever since I seen that name, I love it. My son's middle name is Shay, I told my daughter that she could give him his middle name and she wanted to name him after my sister, Shay.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
20 Oct 10
I like the name Paige too.. reminds me of the girl on Charmed. Glad I didn't let my kids name my younger ones.. my daughter wanted to name my youngest Surf Boy.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
22 Oct 10
Kathryn's middle name is Teresa and it was actually a two-fold reason that I gave her that name as her middle name. First of all, she was named after my close friend that was the reason that I gave her father a chance in a relationship, Reesee (Teresa) is honestly the only reason that Tom and I are together. In addition to that, I always looked up to Mother Teresa and wanted my child to have just a touch of the charity that she had so I thought by sharing her name I would give that to my daughter.
Paul's middle name is Thomas which is his father's first name. Tom never really wanted a junior and I had made a promise long before I even knew that I would have a son that if I ever had a son his first name would be Paul. It fit well together and Tom was happy that our son got a part of his name.
@brex777 (1)
• Mexico
19 Dec 10
My baby girl's first name is Jashlyn but we, too were going to name her Ashlyn until my husband thought of the J and liked it better - too funny! Her middle name is Ruth because we wanted a Biblical name and it is my sister's middle name so we could keep a name in the family.
@Barb42 (4214)
• United States
20 Oct 10
We picked the middle name of both our children. Our son was born first and his middle name is the same as his Dad's. We had actually picked out another middle name. But when one of his sisters came to see him at the hospital and found out what we were naming him, she had a fit! So we decided to change it to my husband's middle name. Although I like it, now I wish we had NEVER gave in! Our daughter has the middle name of a girl I worked with back in Texas years before she was born. I just loved her name.
@keshia2007r (2880)
• United States
19 Oct 10
INTERESTING TOPIC!
I don't have any children, but i do have a brother and a sister
who both have middle names.
me on the other hand, i don't have a middle name :(
i've always asked my mom why, and she said...she just couldn't think of anything.
lol weird right?
@toniganzon (72285)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
My son's middle name is Craig. I chose it because it means rock, strong and brave. I actually saw a movie which is a true story about a boy with a cancer with this name who tried to survive because of the get well soon card that he's been receiving. He was in the Guinness book of world records.
@OneLove2010 (20)
• United States
19 Oct 10
It took us forever to pick out a girl name. We wanted something unique and different. Not overused. We picked her first name because it just seemed perfect. I actually got the name from a girl I remember growing up and she had the most beautiful voice, like an angel, and was so kind hearted. Her name was unique so we picked that. My husband likes to embrace his indian side. So he picked Sky as her middle name. All in all her name is Chasity Sky. It fits her perfect!
@anNiTa (126)
• United States
20 Oct 10
I believe "marie" is universal! goes well with everything! my daughters middle name is MARIE and i just think it fits well.
my sons middle name is isaiah, love the name very biblical. and goes well with his first name.
I dont have any stories behind the names, but i have several family members with the same middle name as my daughter... very common.
