# Poll: Ladies, \: What's your middle name? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286 "2010-11-11T07:17:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/41 "2010-11-11T16:23:25Z")
Mine’s also Dawn. USA. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/42 "2010-11-11T16:26:04Z")
> [@chela](#): > > Yup one of those is mine. Yet I dropped it in favor of my maiden anme when I got married. This, exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/43 "2010-11-11T16:31:48Z")
Mine is Marie. My mother’s name is Mary, my grandmothers were Mary and Mae. Mae was my mom’s mom. So Marie was supposed to be an homage to all of them. And yes, we were Catholic. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/44 "2010-11-11T16:52:21Z")
My middle name is Seymour, I’m female, 49, born in the US. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/45 "2010-11-11T17:00:48Z")
Middle name: Eve (born in USA). It was my Russian grandmother’s name. When I made my confirmation, I was told to pick a saint’s name from a list. All the Theresas picked “Marie” or “Ann”, and all the Maries and Anns picked “Theresa”. Being one of a handful of non-Italians, I picked “Monica” because it was different. I was weary of hearing the names ‘Theresa, Marie, Ann, Ann Marie, Theresa Marie, Mary Theresa, Theresa Ann’ all the time…I don’t hardly know how they told each other apart. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/46 "2010-11-11T17:05:29Z")
Margaret ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/47 "2010-11-11T17:11:29Z")
Mary/Marie is an incredibly common middle name in cultures with a high incidence of Catholicism. Thankfully, although it was my grandmother’s middle name and I was named after her, my middle name is her first name, Frances. I guess that was to make up for being named Jessica, like 2 out of every 5 other girls born in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/48 "2010-11-11T17:17:22Z")
My older sister’s middle name is Marie, my younger’s is Lynn. I got Joy, which is also pretty common I think. White Americans here. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/49 "2010-11-11T17:33:42Z")
My wife’s middle name was her mother’s maiden name, as is the Chinese tradition. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/50 "2010-11-11T17:57:38Z")
Middle name Barbara Ann. I was supposedly named after both my grandmothers, but one was Alice and the other was Anne with an e. I am also 24. I have an old lady set of middle names. And yes, I know the song. Niece was born this year, middle name Grace. ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/51 "2010-11-11T18:04:27Z")
Weird. I’ve never noticed this trend, but I’m part of it. I’ve got one of those for my middle name and my sister has another. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/52 "2010-11-11T20:46:25Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Julia Ann here. I don’t really think those two names flow together very well, but that just might be my mild dislike of going by Julia. I’m a Julie, dammit! > > One sister has a middle “Marie.” The other has a middle “Jean.” I’ve always thought Ann went pretty well with Julia…at least it suits me. 😛 It’s funny, but almost every Julia or Julie that I know has Ann(e) as a middle name. My sibs and I were all given more than one middle name (RC, wouldn’t ya know). Two of my three sisters have Mary/Maria as part of their names (with Maria, it’s a first name), two of us have Ann as part of ours. Patricia, Elizabeth and Teresa also figure prominently in my extended family’s middle name scheme. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/53 "2010-11-11T20:57:33Z")
Elizabeth ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/54 "2010-11-11T21:10:28Z")
My sister and I both have “filler” middle names. If I’d had kids, I would have given them two solid usable names, so if they hated one they could use the other. I’m stuck. I never use my middle name because it’s far too, oh, fluffy in combo with my first name, but I do use the initial. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/55 "2010-11-11T21:15:43Z")
Ok, so far the poll shows it’s not THAT common to have those middle names, but the explanations seem to fit my experiences, as I grew up mostly just outside Chicago, and most folks I knew were Catholic. I also tend to agree with the notion that a lot of middle names are filler, and chosen for the best verbal flow, so something nice and solid works really well most of the time. Out of us four kids, we have solid, ‘boring’ middle names, but each one was in honor of a person. Except for the ‘Allen’; I’ll have to ask who that was. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/56 "2010-11-11T21:28:21Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > My mom insists that most any Catholic girl will have the middle name of Ann or Marie/Mary. She’d be right. I grew up in Northeast Ohio in the '60s and '70s and _most_ Catholic girls I knew at the time had Marie or Ann as middle names (I put Marie first because it was the most popular - it seemed for every Ann, there were two Maries). I felt very out of place at times. I’m not Catholic and have a rather unattractive family last name as my middle name - there’s no flow there at all with first or last names. I told no one what it was for years. And then at my high school graduation, it came out. For some reason my full name ended up on my diploma and was announced as I came across the stage. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/57 "2010-11-11T23:39:26Z")
Grace is my middle name, and I actually like it better than my first name. Oh well. I have a lot of friends with Renee or Nicole as their middle names. ---
**Author:** ![Suse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Suse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suse)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/58 "2010-11-11T23:53:36Z")
My middle name is Jane. I have seven sisters and their middle names are Ann, Kay, Claire, Dee, Jo, Sue, and Jean. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/59 "2010-11-12T03:09:48Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > My family tended toward last names as middle names. Ours too. My middle name is my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, a fine Scottish name that is very long (and hard for little girls to spell). My sisters all have various long middle names too, some last names, some obscure relatives’ names… my baby sister’s middle name is Evenstar. Our older son married a girl with the middle name Marie (they are now divorced). She has three or four sisters. For some crazy reason the parents gave them ALL the middle name of Marie. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286/60 "2010-11-12T03:27:07Z")
Does Leanne count as a variant of Ann/e? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-ladies-and-other-women-whats-your-middle-name/560286.md?page=4)