My middle name is Elizabeth, which was my grandmother’s name. I have 2 brothers and a sister; each of us got our middle name from a grandparent. Three of the four grandparents had names that started with “E”. My siblings & I have first names that start with the same letter, so three of us have the same initials. Three of the grandparents did not have middle names.
I’m happy with my middle name. My poor sister got stuck with “Elsie”.
But seriously, it’s a nod to my paternal grandfather, which is sort of funny, since after he passed away about ten years ago we learned that his given name was Armando, but for some reason he was called Arturro. When he was a young man (in the early thirties) he changed his name to something more Anglo sounding, including our family name.
Mary, after both of my grandmothers – the Lithuanian grandmother was actually Mariana, and the WASP grandmother was always called Molly, but I’m named after both of them anyway
It’s a tradition on my mom’s side of the family to give the oldest child the middle name of Kerr, so we have Clyde Kerr, Kate Kerr, Nan Kerr, and me, Lindsay Kerr.
My father’s middle name is Ray. He’s named after his uncle Ray, whose daughter is named Rae Marie. All three of Rae Marie’s kids have the middle name Rae/Ray. One of their other cousins named their daughter Jessie Rae after me - although my name is Jessica Rae.
If I have kids, none of them will have the Rae/Ray name. The madness has gone on long enough.
It’s my mother’s maiden name. Both my sister and I got Lee as middle name, and mom took it as a middle name after she married our dad, because she wasn’t given a middle name of her own!
My Great-Great Grandfather stipulated that each first born male of his line had to incorporate on of his names in their name to receive their inheritance. He only had a daughter so the surname would not be passed on. Thus I, by tradition, have a choice of Frank, McCoy or Field for my as yet theoretical first born son.
For the longest time I though this was a legal requirement. I now understand it was his little narcissistic wish. The ‘inheritance’ is pretty damn crappy too. It is a cane with a solid gold top. My dissapointment in learning the true value of the object was crushing. I have yet to decide whether he will get his wish from beyond the grave should I sire a male child.
No idea where it came from. In 7th grade, I went by Eylese in the classes that the other Shannon was in, and by Shannon in the ones where I was the only one. By the end of the year I found out that most of my teachers though I was a set of twins but thought it really strange that we were never seen together.
Fiona. No special reason, except that my mother was born and raised in Scotland and likes the sound of it. My sister has another vaguely Scottish middle name… Shona. Quaintly enough, they rhyme. I like them both.