In the US, what is the 2nd name about ?

[Bigfoot]

I heard a comedy routine once (supposedly a true story) about a guy who had neither a first nor a middle name, only the initials 'JB'. So this guy was known to everybody as 'JB Jones'. He had to constantly explain to people that the 'J' and the 'B' didn't stand for anything. So when he filled out his driver's license application, JB thought he would save time by writing 'J only' in the first name field, and 'B only' in the middle name field. Sure enough, when the license arrived in the mail it was in the name of 'Jonly Bonly Jones'

 

[America444]

i actually am called by my middlename because i have the same first name as my dad

 

[Hitro]

Many people have middle names here, and I think it was the common case even in my grandparents' generation. I have a middle name (that I never use because I hate the idea of having a middle name ), my brother doesn't have one. My father has two (his grandfather's names) and my mother has none at all. My middle name was picked by my parents. So there's no pattern at all...

 

[Evie]

And none of these system happens to fit the one I've seen used in Québec.

The full name (never used, of course) in these parts can be summed up to :

1)Baptism names. When the full name is used, thes come first - there are usually 2-3 of them. They are virtually never mentioned after baptism, even on legal documents.

2)First name. As usual for much of the world, except that I would note we have a high tendency to using composite name (much like, I suppose, the french) - Jean-Marc, Jean-Baptiste, Marc-André, Marc-Olivier, Louis-Philippe, Jean-Philippe, Jean-David, Jean-Luc all come to mind for boys, Marie-Andrée, Marie-Anne, Anne-Marie, Marie-Félix, Marie-Louise, etc comes to mind for girls).

3)Last name, which is EITHER single or composed. When composed it is usually a husband-wife name pairing, either applied to the wife or to their children, but the use of the name paring by wives is declining (most of the time they do not take the husband's name at all - for example my mother still goes and is still legaly known (ie, official documents of the state and such) by her maiden name, despite having been married for over twenty-five years by now. ON the other hand, use of the husband-wife pairing for the children's last name while already widespread is not automatic : while I do bear both names, I have more friends who don't than friends who do. This even vary within a family : my uncle and aunt have three children, two of which bear only the name of my uncle, while the youngest of the three does have the two names.

 

[Esckey]

My sisters have 2 middle names. Both with Anne in them. Everyone in the family besides myself has a middle name that was named after a relative. Mine was either picked out just so that I wasn't the only one without a middle name or I got it just as a precausion incase I didn't like my first name........which is one annoying name.

 

[Amenhotep7]

@Riesstiu

Oh, more than that. Let's see, an example of a full Roman name would be:

Gaius Aurelius Cornelii filius Claudii nepo tribu Palantina Sparticus Maximus domo Ostia

Fully stating his surname, his family name, his nickname, his father's name, his grandfather's name, a description of himself, his family's tribe, and his residence. But this long-winded name was used pretty much only for legal documents.

Oh, and on-topic, all you ever wanted to know about the middle (or second) name, but were afraid to ask.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_name

 

[philippe]

In the UK, it is the grandfather's first name for the boys, and the grandmother's first name for the girls. At least thats how it works in my area.

Don't you have middle names in France

It is weird i have 3 names and the tradition just like in the U.K. gradfather first names.I like it.
But Most here have only 1 or 2 names

 

[Plotinus]

I've never heard of any British tradition that your middle name is always the same as your grandfather's or grandmothers. Rather, it's quite common to give a middle name that is the first name of someone in the family. I have two middle names, one of which is my father's first name, and the other I'm not sure about.

It seems to me that Americans have a tendency to just make up names, whether they are used as first or second names, or to use surnames as first names. And they also have a tendency to give their names in full - possibly because Americans also have a tendency to name their children after themselves. Personally I can't think of anything more peculiar than giving your child the same name as yourself - think of the postal confusion. And what an egotistical act! That sprog is going to go through life known as "Junior" - no matter how old he gets - even if he becomes president.

Talking of which, maybe Bush Snr was a fan of one of the greatest men to come from Texas - T-Bone Walker? Unlikely, perhaps.

Oh, and the blues singer J.B. Lenoir's first name was just those initials - they didn't stand for anything. I don't know how he got on. There's also B.B. King, but of course in his case it stands for "Blues Boy", although no-one ever calls him that. His real name is Riley - another peculiar and apparently made-up American name.

 

[Plotinus]

I might add that when I was a librarian I had terrible difficulty with Spanish authors, because in their case they have two surnames - *not* a middle name and a surname - so it was never clear which one to file them under. I decided to file them under the first surname and that seemed to work. I write a lot of bibliographies these days and follow the same procedure, which seems to be standard.

 

[Zarn]

It seems to me that Americans have a tendency to just make up names, whether they are used as first or second names, or to use surnames as first names. And they also have a tendency to give their names in full - possibly because Americans also have a tendency to name their children after themselves. Personally I can't think of anything more peculiar than giving your child the same name as yourself - think of the postal confusion. And what an egotistical act! That sprog is going to go through life known as "Junior" - no matter how old he gets - even if he becomes president.

I was named after my grandfathers (their first names became my first and second names). Alot of people are named after grandparents and other members as well as the father.

 

[Plotinus]

I've found, by the way, that Walker is one of George Bush Snr's middle names. So poor old George Jr got all his names from his father, and actually missed out on one (George Snr has two middle names)!

 

[nonconformist]

In the UK, it is the grandfather's first name for the boys, and the grandmother's first name for the girls. At least thats how it works in my area.

Don't you have middle names in France

That's strange-you live in Reading-which I assume is the one in Oxon. I live in Oxon, and there is no real rule. Then again, I have a Frenchj middle name, which is difficult for everyone else to pronounce.

 

[cgannon64]

Walker is actually one of their old family names, I think. I read it in an extremely biased short biography of the family.

Everyone I know has a middle name; among Catholics its usually a saint I think, or a relative.

EDIT: No, the saint is the Confirmation name. That's right, we Catholics have FOUR names!

 

[Hitro]

Around here people are usually given 3-4 names (first, middle (1-3), and surname) along with made up nick names or names they use while speaking in languages other than English. I personally am known by about 10 names depending on who you ask, but use just 3 officially.

Speaking of names, why the hell did you choose that nickname?

 

[Zarn]

Walker is actually one of their old family names, I think. I read it in an extremely biased short biography of the family.

Everyone I know has a middle name; among Catholics its usually a saint I think, or a relative.

EDIT: No, the saint is the Confirmation name. That's right, we Catholics have FOUR names!

Didn't I say that? I had friends jealous of my four names before. It's not a big deal to me, though.

 

[Cuivienen]

I have a plethora of names (not going to post them all on here, you stalkers!), but a lot of them are old surnames in the family; the second half of my full name is "Roberts-Abercrombie Byrne Schroeder Smith". I do, however, have four given names before that. (My parents were crazy.)

I think it's just tradition to give a middle name in all English-speaking countries, not just the US. Usually, the names are names of old or deceased family members, but not always. Sometimes middle names are passed down (my grandfather, father and brother all have "James" in their middle names), and in other cases two names sound better together ("Mary Jane", for example).

 

[Sims2789]

It's just for identification purposes, I suspect.

You've guessed it! For example, the inventor of peanut butter, George Washington Carver, was originally just George Carver. But there was a man who lived on the same street who shared his name and their mail often got confused, so he decided to choose a middle name. One of his friends jokingly suggested Washington, and he went along with it. Also, some Americans take the last name of one of their parents(usually their mother) as their middle name. My half-brother, however, took my stepmom's last name as his stast name, and my dad's last name as his middle name. But he has two middle names. His full name is Nolan Mitchell Sims Steig, whereas mine is Steven Alexander Sims. My dad wanted to name me Alexander, so we put it as my middle name, and my stepmom wanted to name my brother Mitchell, so it is one of his middle names. I am sure that officially Mitchell Sims is just one middle name but with a space, as government forms only have one slot for middle name/initial.

 

[Sims2789]

Speaking of names, why the hell did you choose that nickname?

Nicknames are usually chosen by our peers. Mine are as follows:

Sims(used in baseball, football and by male friends that I have known since middle school)

Money$ims(also used in football)

Stevo(used very rarely in high school baseball only)

Steve(used by everyone else)

I have a plethora of names (not going to post them all on here, you stalkers!), but a lot of them are old surnames in the family; the second half of my full name is "Roberts-Abercrombie Byrne Schroeder Smith". I do, however, have four given names before that. (My parents were crazy.)

I think it's just tradition to give a middle name in all English-speaking countries, not just the US. Usually, the names are names of old or deceased family members, but not always. Sometimes middle names are passed down (my grandfather, father and brother all have "James" in their middle names), and in other cases two names sound better together ("Mary Jane", for example).

Which middle initial do you put on forms? Is only one of them legal, and the rest unnoficial, or are they technically one big middle name with spaces?

 

[Sims2789]

...3)Last name, which is EITHER single or composed. When composed it is usually a husband-wife name pairing, either applied to the wife or to their children, but the use of the name paring by wives is declining (most of the time they do not take the husband's name at all - for example my mother still goes and is still legaly known (ie, official documents of the state and such) by her maiden name, despite having been married for over twenty-five years by now. ON the other hand, use of the husband-wife pairing for the children's last name while already widespread is not automatic : while I do bear both names, I have more friends who don't than friends who do. This even vary within a family : my uncle and aunt have three children, two of which bear only the name of my uncle, while the youngest of the three does have the two names.

So if John Smith-Jones and you marry Laura Bush-Reagan and if John and Laura have a kid, is their kid's last name Smith-Bush-Jones-Reagan? I assume it is not, as in six generations you would have thrity-two last names.

 

[Sims2789]

Now adays, most people here just give a middle name, because it is often their "second-choice" as a birth name, and they don't want to discard it completely.

That is how I got my Alexander and how my half brother, Nolan, got his Mitchell. In my opinion Mitchell is the worste name in English, so thank god it is not his first name.