What's The Story With Your Middle Name?
My 9-year-old asked me why we have middle names.
And I have no answer for him (ok, I could have looked here.) Is it to make initials look more balanced? Is it a name to honour someone in your family? Are they a back-up in case the person doesn't like their first name?
My middle name, Suzann, was given to me to honour a cousin who was a contemporary of my mother who drowned when she was 10.
It is a sad story, but I consider it lucky to have been named for someone. If I was more of the romantic type I would think it meant I had a guardian angel. The lack of an 'e' on the end was my parents' attempt at being hippies (or at least that is my story). It often gets added by unthinking people by mistake and can get me in trouble at the airport.
My husband's middle name is my mother-in-law's maiden name, which was very forward thinking in 1967 - especially since it is not one of those last names that sounds like a first name kind of name. His siblings all have the same name and I think they were all mildly embarrassed about it growing up when asked about their middle name. I think it is super cool and just another reason to like my progressive mother-in-law.
I love finding out my friends' middle names and the stories behind them. It always adds another dimension to who they are.
Our kids' middle names are all in honour of someone. We took the first name of a relative who passed away and used that to create a middle name. It is common practise in Jewish families. My daughter's middle name is my mother's maiden name and is one of the those last-but-could-be-first kind of names. I am very proud that she is carrying on my mother's line.
Middle names seem to have lost some of their gravitas lately. Just ask Jamie Oliver; his kids are Poppy Honey, Daisy Boo, Petal Rainbow and Buddy Bear. I guess for some people middle names are a chance to have some fun and honour a favourite singer, artist or climate feature. To each their own, I guess.
We found the middle names way easier to figure out than the first names. We had a template (dead relatives) and just moved on from there.
How about you? What's your middle name? How did you decide on your kids' middle names?
Want more chaos? Last year, I posted Tina Fey's prayer for her daughter and I still cry when I read it...
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