–Or Samuel F. B. Morse.
I’ve noticed that occasionally in people over 60 their middle name is the Mother’s maiden name.
Fretful Porpentine is correct - middle names were almost unknown in England in the early seventeenth century. (The “de” in Edward de Vere doesn’t count. Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, is one of the rare exceptions.) It would therefore have been far more surprising if anyone on the Mayflower did have one. They don’t begin to become widespread until the eighteenth century. I’m not sure anyone really knows the reason why.
I have no idea how widespread this is but there can be practical reason for having middle names in some cultures.
The Scottish tradition naming convention, IIRC, means the first son is given his fathers name, the second son his paternal grandfathers, the third the maternal grandfathers etc with a similar convention for the daughters. With large families and marriages with the clan or district you get the same name appearing very commonly within and between generations. You might say that the names can get as closely related as the genes. 
This can often create the situation where two or more children in a family, by convention, would have the same first name. To get around this the second name (where the parents were allowed more discretion) was employed and was often the common name used to distinguish son from father/grandfather/uncle etc.
For example my maternal grandfather was William Donald XXXXX but he was always known as Donald, as his three brothers were William James, William Rowley and William Archibald.
Thank you so much for all of your responses! You were all a huge help.
Thanks again!
Tina
woolly - Your information on Scottish naming customs is correct and variations on this system were found elsewhere in Britain. In England it was sometimes the role of the godparents which was important, with the child being given the name of the senior godparent (who was often one of the grandparents) or a name chosen by the godparents. The potential for confusion was all the greater as the range of Christian names in common use was very limited.
However, all these traditions were far older than the eighteenth century and so do not, of themselves, explain the increasing use of middle names. Other factors which one might assume to have played a part - registration of baptisms, improved literary, increased government bureaucracy and form-filling - do not coincide with the new fashion.
One of my favorite episodes of the Dick Van Dyke Show concerned their son Ritchie, who wanted to know why his middle name was Rosebud. The rest of the show was a flashback to his newborn days when everybody had a favorite name they wanted Rob and Laura to name their kid. IIRC, the maternal grandfather had one, the maternal grandmother had another, as did the paternal grandmother and grandfather, the boss, the next door neighbors, etc. Finally in desparation, they combined all the names into an acronym ROSEBUD, which stood for something like Richard Oscar Sam Edgar Bert Unger David. Much fun.
Hometownboy
Scratch the Christian and you find the pagan–spoiled.
–Israel Zangwell
I remember reading a book in High School Johnny Tremain, I think. I don’t remember alot about the book other than the fact that he had a middle name because of high social standing of his father. He didn’t use that middle name for the reason that it would bring shame to his father since he was born to unmarried parents. Also, using his middle name would have made him appear pretentious. The book was set during the Revolutionary War or about that time. Hmmmm…perhaps middle names did come into popular use about that time?
Hell, I even gave my dog a middle name.
His name is Loki Blue Sorensen.
I don’t suppose his full name was Johnny Cougar Tremain, was it.
Middle names per se don’t strike me as upper-class, but it
does seem to be the case that some upper class families
do tend to use their prominent names as middle names for
the offspring of female members who are born with different names. Like William Kennedy Smith.
I use my middle name or my middle initial quite often. I have a fairly common last name and a very common first name. So, my middle name can help avoid confusion.
Whenever I publish a research paper, I use my middle name or initial to try and keep my work separate from any others in the field.
And, of course, only coincidentally was reminiscent of Rob’s co-workers, Rose and Buddy.
Robert
Oscar
Sam
Edward
Benjamin
Ulysses
David
Or shoot somebody important, like the President?
Or in my case, when I heard my middle name used along with my first it was by my Mother and I knew to run like hell in the other direction.
For whatever reason, one of my sisters has both a double first name (Juliann) and a middle name (Kay).
More long names: Alan Mitchell Edward George Patrick Henry Gallagher, who played for the San Francisco Giants. There’s a T T W W Bingbang listed in the Denver phone book.
Exactly, it’s a parenting tool.
I contend that for white females born in the USA in the 1950’s there were exactly two middle names given. Ann and Lynn. My sister and I have one each.
Personally I gave both my children middle names as sort of a future option. If they really hate their first names later on they can go by their middle names without any real hassle. And of course so when I yell their full names they know that I mean business.
LOL. NO. As I recall it was Jonathan Lyte Tremain. That was cute, though.
> The only time you use your middle name is when you get married, become a CEO or die.
Or become notorious, like James Earl Ray, John Wayne Gacy, John Wilkes Booth…
Sometimes you can make yourself sound more imposing in a snotty kind of way by initialising your first and using your middle name (F. Lee Bailey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, M. Christine Boyer)
In Ethiopia (and probably elsewhere) you add YOUR name to the beginning of a list of your male ancestors which might normally stop at three but conceptually goes back to the beginning of time.
The S in Harry S Truman stood for “S” and was abbreviated “S.” by people who abbreviate for its own sake.
If you give your son the middle name “Wayne” you can expect to be invited to his execution at some point.