My son has my maiden name as a second middle name. He goes by a diminutive of his first middle name.
Some American actors with multiple middle names:
Laura Jeanne Reece Witherspoon aka Reece Witherspoon
Mel Colmcille Gerard Gibson aka Mel Gibson
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus aka Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor aka Richard Pryor
María de Lourdes Villiers Farrow aka Mia Farrow
Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta Sobieski aka Leelee Sobieski
I’ve got 2 middle names and not a drop of English blood.
- shrug-
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We don’t have “legal names” in Ireland. Your name is a matter of fact, not law. If people call you “nelliebly”, then that’s you name - that what the word ‘name’ means, after all. If it says “Eleanor” on your birth certificate and some people call you that, that’s also your name. There’s no rule that says you can only have the one name.
It’s unusual in Ireland for people to adopt a confirmation name into regular use.
Yeah, I found that pretty silly since nobody uses the confirmation name. I chose the name I already had as my confirmation name and got a grin from the bishop; apparently he also found it silly.
In Spain we differentiate between “baptismal name”, “name as it appears in your ID” and “[actual] name”. My mother was baptised María Teresa Valentina Laura, her ID says María Teresa, the only people who don’t call her Maite are phone salesmen. Even government officers will take one look at her ID and ask “is it María Teresa or Maite?”, since that abbreviation is so common. And the “ID name” may not even be consistent: I got an official “ID name” change because the Spanish government, in its infinite wisdom and inability to speak with itself, was abbreviating my name differently in different IDs and this caused problems when dealing with foreigners.
Like the Irish, we do not have “legal names” in the American sense: any name you’re known by is your legal name so long as it’s not intended to deceive. I could sign a contract as Little Red Riding Hood so long as the other parties agreed to accept that as my name.
A popular folk song tells us the story of a certain Eddie Kushi Katchi Kama Tosa Nira Tosa Noka Sama Kama Wacky Brown. It turns out that having an excessively multi-part name like this can have serious and unfortunate consequences.
The story is told, I read somewhere, that when young Princess Elizabeth became Queen in 1952, she was expected to choose a throne-name for herself. Everyone was flabbergasted when she chose (wait for it …) Elizabeth !
I recall reading, about the time that Prince William was born, there was much ado about what name he might be given. The speculation was heavily slanted toward a repeat of some already-used Royal name rather than something totally new to the family, but excluding the name of any past royal who had ever brought dishonor to the royal family (e.g., Edward was right out). The implication I got from all that was, they were trying to choose a name that the prince could comfortably choose to keep as his throne name when he became King. But it will be a while before we find out.
Reginald names are different again, because there’s a heavier symbolic weight attached, as with Popes. It’s noticeable that Queen Victoria’s wish for her successors to honour Albert never turned up in regnal names - neither of the heirs known as Albert stuck to it on accession. And there’s been a story for years that Charles might become George VII in honour of his grandfather.
I knew a Canadian in Thailand who had a baby in Bangkok with his Thai wife and wanted to give the boy two middle names. Thais don’t have middle names, but they’re used to registering babies with Western names by now. However, there’s only one space for a middle name, so the district official was insisting two middle names were against the law. It took a day of arguing, sometimes heatedly, before the guy’s wife told him confidential-like, “Look. My husband is stubborn and isn’t going to go away until he gets his way. He’ll be back tomorrow too, and the next day.” The official gave in.
They wouldn’t have been flabbergasted. Most monarchs have used the name by which they were known publicly. There were really only two who went with an unexpected name (both of the Alberts). (Queen Victoria’s first name was Alexandrina, but she was already using the name Victoria before her accession.)
And lest anyone get the mistaken impression that he was some boorish foreigner trying to throw his weight around, I assure you that was not the case. He went online and asked the local foreign community if it was really true about registering two middle names being illegal and heard back from several Western men who had registered their local offspring with two middle names. One man even sent him a photo of his child’s birth registration. No, it was just an arrogant civil servant making up the law as he went along. Trust me, those are not hard to find in Thailand. Experienced a few myself.
I don’t know about Ireland, but my aunt added hers legally when she married. She converted because she was engaged to a Catholic guy, so the conversion and marriage were pretty close together. She’s by far the more religious of the two now though.
I can’t say more generally; adult conversion’s pretty unusual to begin with, and my in depth knowledge of English Catholics is pretty much limited to her, even her kids have drifted out of the church for the most part.
My surname is Welsh, so my parents decided to give me 2 names with very Welsh spelling. I spent a large part of my school years being told that I had spelled my own name wrong. It doesn’t help that my first name appears to be a unique spelling that they invented.
I wanted my children to keep the Welsh heritage, but not have to argue with teachers and always have to spell their name out. So they have 2 ‘normal’ names and then a 3rd name which is Welsh and then the surname. Middle son has no english vowels in his 3rd name and the youngest has a letter and accent combination that was not available on the registrars computer. So his birth certificate is hand written.
I’ve got two middle names, because my great-grandparents named my grandfather after Jack Pickford, attaching a variant of his full name to my grandpa, and the name got passed on to my father and to me.
Judging by the speed of adoption, and longevity, of the idea of “a new Elizabethan age” throughout the 50s, it was hardly a surprise, and rather welcomed.
That sounds a very garbled version of the oft-told anecdote that the Queen herself seemed a bit surprised that her private secretary, Martin Charteris, should have asked the question at all.
Since one of his names is Arthur, I hope he picks King Arthur. Probably not.
Thanks everyone. Interesting stories about middle names and naming in general. While two middle names may not just be a UK thing, it’s certainly more common in the UK than the US for whatever reason. When I come across someone with two middle names it always appears strange to me, but perhaps that’s because I am a non-christian American with only one middle name, and I don’t know anyone personally with two middle names. I’m glad to hear it’s still being done, and there are some pretty good reasons why someone might want to give their children two middle names. Ignorance fought.
My daughter has two middle names. She’s adopted and we kept the first and middle name given to her at birth, we added a middle name.
My niece and nephew both have two middle names. When their mother calls them by their first and last names they know they’re in trouble. When she adds one middle name they know they’re in real trouble. When she adds both middle names they know they’re in deep shit. 