I just wanted to check back in here. For those who have been questioning the multiple middle name thing, I just wanted to say that I am planning on giving my future children at least 2 middle names.
There are plenty of people with the conventional firstname middlename surname who choose to use their middle name because they didn’t like their first name. Hell, I have a friend whose given name is Matthew, but chooses to go by Cletus (his middle name- no joke I’ve seen his driver’s license) because Matthew is boring and he thinks Cletus is funny.
There are a lot of names that I like, so I’d have to have about 30 children to use all those names (or have a lot of pets). I’ve already used up 2 names that I like but figured future children might not (Bridget and Seamus) and the cats don’t seem to mind them at all.
Multiple names is not unusual in some cultures. And Catholics, upon confirmation, take another name. My mom, who has no middle name at all, uses her confirmation name as a middle name. I’d do the same if it weren’t for that stupid show in the 90s that made my choice not unique at all. I chose the name Felicity because I thought it was pretty, and the 13 year old me thought the idea of my namesake being gored to death by a heifer (that’s what it said in my Lives of Saints) was hilarious.
If you are in the U.S. - think carefully before you make this their legal name. The legal world isn’t set up for two middle names - I know, I did it. It causes a lot of confusion, and some amount of headache - and we are talking about Social Security Administration and IRS sorts of headaches, not just spelling your name for the dinner reservation. Two people can SOMETIMES deal with. More than two middle names and their little heads explode - not pretty when you are dealing with the IRS - they hold exploding heads against you.
Nothing like not being able to close on your house because all the paperwork is wrong - and having the closing delayed by a week while they redo everything because they didn’t understand that the extra name was middle - and not a double last name.
We did it for my son - two middle names. I wouldn’t do it again - and he hasn’t even gotten to the age where its going to cause problems. We had a good reason with the adoption thing. I suspect he’ll change it at 18 and get rid of the extra one - he’s never been fond of it. And I won’t be sad.
Now, if you want to name your child “George Alexander RedRoses” legally and call him (or baptize him) “George Barnett Alexander St. Andrew RedRoses, Keeper of the Faith, King of the Backyard” that’s your business. Just be careful what you stick on the birth certificate.
I’m sorry, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Almost snorted coke all over my laptop.
How does the baptism thing work? I just found out a few years ago that my grandmother, Catherine Matilda, was actually baptised Matilda Catherine. Seems that her mother (Matilda) hated her name, but her father insisted on using the name Matilda somehow. So on her birth certificate, it’s Catherine Matilda, but the day of the baptism, my great-grandmother was too sick to go, so she sent her husband. Who of course had her baptised Matilda Catherine. Does that change anything? Does she have a different “Christian” name in the eyes of the church?
And I think any future sons will be baptised Patrick Donovan Guinness RedRoses, Keeper of the Faith, King of the Backyard.
(The whole idea of the multiple middle names was to be able to include a name that I liked AND a family surname- I got stuck with a German last name because my dad’s dad was German, so all the pretty Irish ones are lost to history.)
That’s the situation with my son - he has my father’s name as a middle name (in adoption circles this is an action of “claiming” and is considered good), and he has his birthmother’s family name as a second middle name (once again, adoption circles - this is “respecting his past” and is considered good). However, from an ease of use perspective, his legal name sucks. So far, its only use has been on a passport. On school records, they dropped the second middle name.
Baptismal names make no legal difference (at least, not in the U.S.) - except, if you are Catholic - you might need to explain to the priest why they (baptismal vs. legal) are different when you get married. I haven’t dealt with being Catholic for over a decade, so I’m not real sure.
My own experience with two middle names was keeping my original middle name and moving my maiden name to a second middle name on marriage (with a compound married name - to screw it up further). My social security records and tax records got screwed up - so did my college transcripts. When I divorced, I went back to my maiden - but I can never figure out how records from that period are going to be found. If you do this, I’d recommend making the second middle name one people recognize as a middle name (John) and not a second last name - guarenteed to find him filed under Sweeney-RedRoses or RedRoses with pretty much equal distribution.
A point made in The Simpsons episode about the “B Sharps”
Lets choose a name that is slightly amusing to start off with but gets more and more irritating with each repetition.
Over a lchildhood ,let alone a lifetime, that is a source of a great deal of resentment.
Try asking anybody with a surname that suggests an obvious joke ,how many thousands of times have they heard the same bloody joke spouted by someone
under the impression that they are the only one to have made the connection.
And Im speaking from the heart here as someone whos surname is Bigbollocks.