How common would the use of two middle names have been in the US in the late 1800s-early 1900s? I’m coming across this naming convention in some of my ancestors, and it kind of surprised me because I associated it more with, say, the British upper class. Just to be clear, I’m not referring to the use of the mother’s maiden name being added in (Esmeralda Agatha Smith Jones) or a double name + a single name (Mary Ann Louise Johnson), but three separate given names and a surname (Lois Hazel Alice Thompson). These would have been individuals from Protestant families of English or German heritage that would have been in the US (southeastern part) for at least a few generations, and probably working-class.
I don’t know how common it was in general. But my father and his siblings, born about 1914 to 1929, all had two middle names. My father, the baby of the family, had his names rearranged shortly after birth, with his birth certificate officially amended. He’d been Herbert Harry Harold Surname and it was reatranged to Harold Harry Herbert Surname. People thought the use of Herbert meant he was named for the POTUS.
What I was told by some childhood friends/neighbors was that it was common in their family because it was fairly large and a lot of people basically used the same names over and over through the generations; think Kelly or Stephenson and the glut of Thomas and Alberts in each - a way to know which cousin is which. I don’t know how valid that explanation is but I can think of other examples across the years of something that looks much like that.
My dad has two middle names. My daughter has two middle names. My niece has her name split to make a first and middle name. To answer the OP it is probably a family thing.
Data Point: George Herbert Walker Bush was born in 1924 and he has two middle names.
Data Point: My grandfather was born in 1907 and had no middle name.
I appreciate the responses. I was just a bit puzzled because on the other side of my family (same general ethnicity/social class, although from a slightly different region in the US) this wasn’t done at all. I’m thinking that as I dig a little deeper, it will be a matter of names being recycled. Thanks.
I’m the only one of my siblings without two middle names, but mine is still two words. That was unusual amongst my generation, though.
My Dad had three middle names, all in interchangeable order with his first name. It got a bit confusing sometimes.
Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish (born 1925) was a baseball pitcher for 15 years in the majors.
It wasn’t common at any time, but it happrned, often when their family wanted to honor multiple relatives.
I have two middle names. First born males on my dad’s side all do.
Myname (granddad’s name) (dad’s name) lastname
Dad paid for some genealogical work 20 years ago for other purposes and we could not find a spot where such stopped. At least back to the early 1700s. Poor people in the south (rural Louisiana) often didn’t have much other than such traditions to hang on to.
On the other hand, my maternal grandfather only had a middle initial. He was small at birth and they didn’t think he’d live so he just got a ‘B’ on his birth certificate.
My daughter has two middle names, but that’s later than the time period you’re looking at. Most of my relatives with German ancestry have at least two middle names, but that’s a little earlier than you’re looking at.
During the span at which you are looking, late 1800s to early 1900s, my family seemed content with one middle name. We are always too early or too late for what’s in style, I guess.
Nobody in my immediate family has even one middle name. I guess some people are just greedy.
The ancestors I have who fit this description (British heritage, SE US, right time period) did not have two middle names. Some, like my grandmother, didn’t have any middle names at all. The rest had one, in many cases the same one (handed down from generation to generation like a piece of fine jewelry I suppose). One small data point, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
A couple of my German ancestors, other side of the family, did have 2 middle names, but they were still in Europe during your time period. They seem to have pretty much stopped that tradition before arriving in the US, anyway.
My wife’s family did go for 2 middle names, though. Her father had two. So did all three of her brothers. (She and her sister did not; the thinking was that they would marry and add their husband’s names to make four.) I don’t know how far back that tradition went. They were of English heritage, but certainly not southeastern; I’ve always seen it as a British affectation of sorts… (Our kids have 1 middle name each. It’s enough.)
Interesting to hear about the German practice, because there is one individual who, although his family apparently had been in the US since sometime in the 1700s, supposedly grew up in a German/Penn Dutch enclave and never learned fluent English. (This comes from a less-than-reliable source, but the one time I met him it was hard to say just what language he was speaking, possibly his own Esperanto.)
I can’t figure out how this works. I guess I am not familiar with any male names that are two words like Mary Ann or Jo Anne. Unless it’s French?
Can you pm me with your middle name??
Is that a Jewish thing? My middle name is my Baptismal name. I don’t suppose many Jews are Baptized… Don’t a lot of Jews have Hebrew names* that go along with their first names? Or is that more like a nickname, and not officially part of your name.
*Jews not in Israel, that is
Clearly his full name is Guano Billy Joe Lad.
I guess all those people giving their kids 2 middle names is why my folks didn’t give any of us middle names at all. 
As someone raised Catholic, I have 2 middle names. Sort of. There is my Chriistian name, otherwise known as first name, My middle or Baptismal name, and then there is my Confirmation name, picked at the time of Confirmation. The latter never appears on any official documents that I know of, though. My confirmation name is Thomas-- I was starting to doubt even then, which was age 9 or 10. :D.
Trips off the tongue.
Oops.
Forgot that with my daughter.
We gave her two middle names at birth, for example,mAlice Louise Victoria. Then when she was confirmed, she chose a Confirmation name. So she has four first names, three which were given at her Baptism, one given at her Confirmation, and a last name.