Why Do We Have Middle Names?

↓ More info and sources below ↓

We understand why we have first names and how our surnames tie us to our family heritage, but what's the deal with middle names? What's the purpose of a middle name and when did different cultures start using them?

Written and Hosted by: Danielle Bainbridge
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios
---
Follow us on...
---
Origin of Everything is a show about the undertold histories and cultural dialogues that make up our collective story. From the food we eat, to the trivia and fun facts we can’t seem to get out of our heads, to the social issues we can’t stop debating, everything around us has a history. Origin of Everything is here to explore it all. We like to think that no topic is too small or too challenging to get started

Works Cited:

The Means of Naming: A Social History Stephen Wilson

van Tilburg W. A. P. and Igou E. R. (2014), The impact of middle names: Middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance, European Journal of Social Psychology, 44, pages 400–411. DOI:10.1002/ejsp.2026

[Chazz]

Middle names are also used to tell when your parents are really really mad at you.

[Ilovevintage]

We have a special tradition in our family where the first born daughters Middle name is her mothers first name. It’s very special for us and goes back several generations. So example… Rachael Victoria. My mother is Victoria Jean. Her mother is Jean Emily. And my great grandmother is Emily Rose and so on and so on. If I had a daughter her middle name would be (first name) Rachael. It’s something special that we Made up for ourselves and is merely ornamental But still holds a special place in our hearts.

[notarobot]

In Mexico you tend to have four names that usually go:
Personal Name + 2nd Personal Name + Father's Surname + Mother's Surname
For example my name is Carmen Maria Randolph Fajardo
The shortened version for introductions is typically just your personal name and your father's surname. Plus you also have people with compound personal names.

[speckofdignity]

Those “bookshelves” are the best pun ever. Good job set designers.

[asiboe]

I don't have a middle name and people often freak out when I tell then :o

[RangerRuby]

I literally just asked this question at lunch and no one knew the answer. Man, you guys make me feel so smart after watching your videos!

[TheSpencermacdougall]

0:15 yes:to know when your mom is pissed off at you

[andaciocoiu]

I'm Romanian and it's common practice to give children multiple first names (we call them prenames). It's usually done to pay homage to some significant relative or for religious reasons (one name can be a saint's name given to protect the child). Most of the time, people have a name their mother chose and a name their father chose, or a name the couple chose together and a name that relatives chose (grandparents, uncles/aunts, godparents). Also, sometimes there's a hyphen added between the two prenames to signify that they're equally important. However, most people only go by their first prename (first first name) because they rarely like both of them. Even parents only call the child by the first prename, but the other one is also used in every legal document. Unless the full name is written, legal documents aren't valid. In these instances, the hyphen matters A LOT. I've had collegues struggle with their school documents because of a misplaced hyphen.
Also, we sign all legal documents with our family name (last name) first, followed by the prenames in the order from the birth certificate. However, in informal settings, we present ourselves starting with our prefered prename.
The middle initial is a whole other story. Some legal documents use the father's first name initials between the last and first name of the child for a more detailed identification.
Let's take this example: a child named Popescu I. Maria-Ioana, Popescu Ion's child. Popescu is her last name (family name), I. is her father's first name initial and Maria-Ioana are her prenames. She would most likely go by Maria, since it's the first prename.
I'm really curious about the origin of these practices in my country, I haven't really thought about this until now. Thank you for the video 🙌🏻

[philyk.illagan]

I was named by Filipino naming conventions, so my second name is part of my legal first name and my middle name is my mother's maiden name. Because of that, I always write my second name immediately after my first. It caused loads of problems when I was in elementary school. "Stop writing your middle name." "It's not my middle name. It's my second name."

[patricksanders]

My middle name is my father's mothers maiden name. As an orphan, this led me, through my genealogy, to dozens and dozens of relatives. Without that name, I might still be lost to the Family.

[kernelpanick]

OMG!!!! I love this channel and she pronounced my last name correctly!! Thank you guys for this video!!!

[ft.jackjimmy]

I have names in 4 different languages, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cantonese, and I made my own English name in court cause I'm tired of people butchering my beautiful name. But guess what, people still don't know how to pronounce my white name, how hard is it to say Hailey?

[danstiver]

Oddly enough Hungarians put their last name before their first name unlike any other Europeans (and they rarely have second names). The Hungarian language also doesn’t fit in with the rest of Europe, only being very distantly related to Finnish and Estonian.

[christianalexanderthegreat]

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

His name was my name too!

[pegmama]

It’s true that middle names are not used and kind of make no sense in Korea. I’m from America and have two middle names, and when I studied abroad there there was a lot of confusion at first because no administrative database thought I was enrolled/existed, until I realized I needed to use my middle names to search. On all paperwork, there are only boxes for given and family names, but since no part of a name is disregarded in Korea I had to cram my three given names into that box made for two Korean characters, otherwise it would cause administrative confusion. Almost every Korean there is named using exactly three syllables (one for family and two for given, ) so when professors came upon my nine syllable name it always broke their stride in role call 😂

[funkysagancat]

Here in Brazil is really common to have two first names, and both matricarcal and partriacal surnames.
But I got two surnames from my father anyway having a total of 5 names
João Victor Araújo e Rocha de Carvalho

[dinkerz]

Apparently, it was a Mexican trend once to name all girls Maria and all boys Jose in a family. The middle name then served as their identifier and usually was selected from the Catholic calendar. I found this out when my dad, Jose, said his brother, Jose, had just pasted away. I had to ask him which Jose. Afterwards his sister clarified that all her brothers were Jose (even the uncles I didn’t call Jose) and all the girls were Maria, (which none went by).

I think this trend was probably specific to a time and region and more than likely it was typical of a specific socioeconomic class. Maria is so common as a first name that it has its own abbreviation and in the case with my maternal aunt, she doesn’t even consider it her first name, more of a prefix to her name. On my mom’s side that aunt is the only one named Maria and the only one with two names.

[greggi]

Not having a "proper" name can be confusing, however you try to work with it. I am told that a great aunt (never met nor even knew about her until recently) named RG. Pronounced, apparently, AR GEE. One of those odd things in Readers Digest ha I remember from at least 60 years ago was about a man who had only the initials R and B before his family name Jones. When he had to fill out forms, they were often flagged and return as incomplete. He finally decided on this: R(only) B(only) which resulted in getting letters address to Ronly Bonly Jones.

[calensmith]

As a name nerd, I loooved hearing about this history! I was all so fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

[longliveplanetawesome]

In Eritrea (at least the Tigrinya ethnic group), you are given a name and your surname is your father's name. However, Eritreans in the United States have a middle name. Their middle name is their father's name and their surname is their paternal grandfather's name. Also, when a man and a woman get married, the woman will not change her surname. In a family with a mom, a dad, and a child, each person has a different surname. Isn't that neat!