I recently came across a bit of trivia that stated; “Didja know that none of the passengers on the Mayflower had middle names?” I thought that was interesting…but it made me think. Why do people have middle names? Did it have anything to do with social status? I was wondering if anyone here knew the answer.
Thanks!
I don’t have a middle name because my family was too poor to afford them, and I think middle names are for losers. However, there may a certain administrator who moderates a certain forum about certain comments on certain mailbag answers who disagrees with me. This individual has a shitload more SDMB social status than me. This doesn’t exactly prove that middle names indicate social status, but it’s a start.
I have two middle names, the first one being the first name of my father and the second one being the first name of my paternal grandfather. That gives me four names, a rather useless bit of amusing trivia about myself. I’ve never been in the ‘upper class’, but I’ve never been poor and my family has traditionally been at least middle-class. By the way, where did you hear that nobody on the Mayflower had middle names? That factoid sounds a little less than accurate, but it might be true.
Middle names are a cultural reminant of the belief in the “magical” power of names.
In primitive times, it was believed that names had a special relationship with the named person. If you knew a person’s name, you could cast a spell on them. By creating a “secret” name, i.e. a “middle name”, you could protect a newborn from evil spells & black magic.
Christianity incorporated this into the Sacrament of Baptism.
As a person without a middle name, I did know that.
Did you know that all the presidents on Mount Rushmore had no middle name?
Most presidents didn’t bother with them.
Well, I’ve been mentally running through a list of famous and not-so-famous English folks from the Mayflower era, and I can’t think of anyone, upper-class or otherwise, with a middle name – unless the “de” in Edward de Vere counts. James I’s eldest son (b. 1594) was christened Henry Frederick, but since crown princes don’t really have last names, I don’t think he can be said to have a middle one.
Running a list of presidents and cabinet officers in the World Almanac, the first middle initials appear between 1807 and 1818 (for the cabinet–the first middle-initialed president was John Q Adams, 1824.)
An absence of a commonly recognized middle initial is not proof that the names were not given, only that they were not commonly used–Woodrow Wilson’s middle name was Woodrow, but he dropped his first name because he shared it with his father, whom he hated. On the other hand, the apparent absence of midle initials among men who were (presumably) born before 1770 is certainly suggestive that the middle name came into common use between 1760 and 1780.
I, too, am middle anonymous, and I can’t say I’ve ever cared either way.
Then of course there is Harry S Truman. The S didn’t stand for anything.
Fretful Porpentine: re.your post about famous English names, you mentioned James 1st and his son, (born 1594) I think you said. I may have misunderstood, but I do not think there was a King James of England at that time.
I thought that the first time that were was a King James in relation to England was in 1603.
James I of England was also James VI of Scotland who had begun asserting his position as ruler of Scotland as early as 1578. By the time his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed in 1587, he had struggled past all the intrigues surrounding his youth and was, in fact, king.
He married and in 1594 had a son, Henry.
In 1603, his own maneuvering paid off when he was named James I, king of the newly proclaimed United Kingdom of Great Britain. So, while he was not James I when his son was born, he certainly was James I in historical retrospective and his first child was, indeed, born in 1594.
Well, I guess we won’t be seing G.H.W.Bush there…
I don’t have a middle name, but I have a double first name, like Jamie Lynn. (not my real name) The nuns used to argue with me all the time that Lynn was my middle name because its so uncommon not to have a middle name.
When my daughter was born I cursed her too!
The only time you use your middle name is when you get married, become a CEO or die.
I think that the more names you have, the lower your status is. When’s the last time you saw “Billy Bob Joe Georgie Jethro Huckleberry Smith” run for congress?
However, if someone had a name that included P’tang P’tang Ole Biscuit Barrel, I would seriously consider voting for him.
Well I have a middle name, but I have a hyphenated last name (two last names combined]. My cousin doesn’t have a middle name is her mothers maiden name though.
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Or W.J.B.Clinton…
I wonder if we can call him William Blythe Jefferson Clinton
Then he’d be Billy B.J. Clinton
Originally posted by blessedwolf
Well, I guess we won’t be seing G.H.W.Bush there…
I certainly hope you are right about this-------
I think middle names are merely an excuse to fit another name onto a child. Say mom wants a child named Robert, and dad wants a child named Sam, name him Robert Samuel Doe, or Samuel Robert Doe. See? That’s it.
At least, this is my case. My dad wanted to name me after my Grandfather’s middle name, and my mom wanted me tohave my dad’s first name. My dad didn’t want me to be junior, so my first name is my Grandfather’s middle name, and my middle name is my dad’s name. Simple, yes?
I have a first name, but I also have another first name. That is, my given middle name is in the mother tongue of my father and grandparents, and I use that as my given name in that lingo.