Do you actually use your middle name?

If you don’t have one, how did you ever know when your parents were really pissed?

I use my middle name almost exclusively. That’s what my parents called me by.

In high school I alternated between names each year, just to keep the teachers on their toes.

My signature is illegible so even on legal documents I don’t have to change it. If I say that is what is says then that is what it says.

My middle name is my birth last name since I was married and I use the whole thing professionally.

When I’m jotting notes to people I just use my first and middle initial TJ, but never use the middle name otherwise.

I am a “Junior”. My family and childhood friends refer to me by my middle name, adult friends and business contacts use my first name.

Haha…yes, sometimes, but…..my middle name was seriously abused as a child, now I like it as an adult.
It is ” Rowena” but shit…as a kid, it was ” Roweenie.” I so hated it! lol

Only on legal documents.

I don’t have one sadly.

@marinelife Relly? Well that’s unusual, were your parents just lazy? haha

I use the middle initial, and most people I know assume wrongly what it stands for.

I know someone who didn’t give her kids middle names. It wasn’t laziness. She said she wanted them to be free to choose their own when they were older.

My full signature includes my middle initial. But I don’t use it much otherwise.

When my parents were really pissed, I knew it just by the way they said my name, even if they didn’t use all of it.

I got rid of my middle names when I got married so that my maiden name was my middle name. Not that I really use that at all either. Not sure what I will do when I get divorced and take my maiden name back.

Before all that, I never used my middle name. It was too horrible.

My daughters middle name is ” Rose.” Beautiful and classic, no complaints from her.

I’m glad I have one, but I never use it. It’s mine alone.

I did in my original Fluther name.

^^^ Is your middle name rare? lol

My old Fluther name. Not this one.

I’ve been using my middle name since I was born. I only use my first name for administrative purposes. My hypothesis is that since my parents divorced early, my mother hated my dad and didn’t want me to have his name.

My mother claimed it is a British thing to not give sons a middle name, so I don’t have one. It’s rare that people believe me when I tell them I don’t have a middle name. I really don’t know where my mom got that hogwash about middle names from.

Growing up, it was used often because I could be one of four people with the same first name in the house at any given time. All of our middle names were different, so the family would say “Lisa <middlename>” to get the right Lisa.

Now I use my middle initial in my signature, but never really use the name.

My mother uses my middle name when I’m in trouble. Now I do the same to… everyone that has a middle name that I know.

Only when signing important, formal and legal stuff, or whenever someone asks. I never introduce myself with the middle name or nothing though. In fact, it seems nearly alien to me.

I don’t have a middle name, nor do I care to obtain one. It’s not as rare as people think to not have a middle name, and I know many others who don’t have one either.

I ended up being called by both names by my family growing up because I had a sister in law with the same first name. I dropped it for years when I moved to New Zealand, but now I live in the land of the double-first-name. They don’t have space on their registration forms for a ‘middle name’ so both names ended up being registered here as my ‘first name’ and it sometimes annoys the hell out of me, especially because it is pronounced stupidly here. Perhaps I will just change it all together because people, especially children, have a hard time pronouncing my very English-sounding first name. So, I guess it gets used here by people at work, but I cringe sometimes when I hear it.

I use mine. I kept mine after I was married and dropped my maiden name altogether. Sometimes I think it would have been better to keep my maiden name. More practical. I kept my middle name because my mom wanted it for my first name. I figured I don’t have her last name, at least I can keep the name she really wanted for me. I use it online.

My mom has a middle name, but her sister doesn’t. I once asked my grandma why and she said after a name like my aunts no other name is necessary. She does have an unsual name. I think it probably was really because my mom’s middle name was after my grandmother’s father. She stuck to the Jewish tradition of using the first letter of the name of a dead relative.

My husband doesn’t have a middle name.

I never use it. I don’t dislike it, but I dislike the fact that it’s the only part of my name that could lead me to be misgendered. When I do my legal name change, I’ll probably just change it to an initial.

American here. All four of my parents’ children were given middle names. All of the women, including aunts, dropped either their first or middle name upon marriage and use their maiden surname as a middle name.

Like @augustlan, my first name is so common that a few people refer to me by both first and middle name. On legal documents, the signature used is first name, middle initial, last name. Once married, I’ll probably drop the middle one and use the maiden surname instead.

@amujinx My partner is British, and his mum didn’t give any of their children (2 males, 2 females) middle names. When asked about it, she said something along the line of being too pretentious. My partner’s father has a middle name though.

@Paradox25 Interesting. I don’t know anyone, except my partner and his siblings, who wasn’t given a middle name. That includes friends and family from other countries.

@Pied_Pfeffer My Ex is British and his parents also didn’t give any of them middle names.

Not got one, but adorable is my “unofficial” middle name…baby.

My middle name is more commonly in use as a surname, so I use it as a pseudonym online sometimes, but I have never used it offline except on legal forms and suchlike. I do like my middle name, but I should do, I chose it myself.

My father has no middle name but my mother has two. My partner uses his middle name hyphenated with his first name, to make a “double-barrelled” first name. This was to distinguish his name from his father’s, as they share a first name.

I use my middle initial all the time in my name, but not the full middle name.

@rojo Why did your parents use your middle name instead of your first? Did it seem to fit you better? Was your first name given to you to honor someone else?

@marinelife Why sadly? Do you wish that you had one?

@Jeruba I know a lot of people without middle names. I don’t think it’s out of laziness either. But I’ve never heard that reason (so they could choose their own) before.

Hmmm…I don’t use my middle initial in my signature. I wonder which is more common.

@glacial Why exactly are you glad to have one?

@augustlan That’s interesting. Usually we would revert to nicknames if we had duplicates.

@cazzie Where exactly is this Land-of-the-Double-First-Name?

@JLeslie Why didn’t your mother name you with your middle name? Can I ask what your aunt’s name is?

@bookish1 Does being misgendered because of your name happen a lot? Do you think a name should also function as a means of identifying gender? Not implying that you do, I’m just curious.

@Pied_Pfeffer Pretentious! That’s an interesting response. Too bad she’s (probably) not on Fluther. I would ask her what she meant by that.

@downtide You chose your own middle name? Did you replace another name? Or did you not have a middle name to begin with? How old were you when you chose it? Did you get it changed legally? What was your motivation? And how did you choose it?

@dxs Do you sign with your middle initial?

@fluthernutter Yes. I even use it casually. Like Mary J. Blidge or George W. Bush.

@fluthernutter I changed my whole name, legally, three years ago as part of my sex transition from female to male. For my new first name, I took the male version of my old middle name. My new middle name is a family tradition amongst men in the paternal side of my family, and its use goes back at least 240 years. Part of the reason I chose it was to soften the blow a little for my father, when I told him that the person he always thought of as his daughter, was really his son instead.

Years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter I got the biggest kick out of telling my ex MIL who was very snobby that if we had a boy I was going to name him ” Brooke Trout” and a girl ” Beulah Lou.” lolol The look on her face was priceless as she stammered to comment in her shock. haha

@fluthernutter It’s a holdover from when I was a child. Most of the people I knew growing up had a middle name. When I would meet someone without one, it just always struck me as a little plain, and a little sad. There’s no rational explanation for it whatsoever. Sort of like in Anne of Green Gables – Anne was adamant about spelling her name with an “e”. It shouldn’t matter, yet somehow it does.

No. I don’t use it, but the initial is on my drivers license and financial stuff, so sometimes I have to use it.

My son didn’t like his middle name – after my grandfather who died while I was pregnant – but it has grown on him and he recently got a tattoo of it.

@fluthernutter Nobody else liked the name as much as my mom. She wanted a particular name for my sister also, and she didn’t get her way with that child either.

I actually like my first name much more than my middle by the way.

I’ll tell you all the names on PM.

The land of double first names in Norway. There are more double first names here than not, I think. Karl-Arne, Anne-Kirsti, Inger-Lill, Kjell-Aage, Martin-Arne, Kari-Anne, .... etc…. as you can see, both men and women have double names here.

If we count double first names my husband’s brother and mother technically have double first names no middle. But, no hyphen. His mom only uses her second first name, except on legal documents. His brother only uses his first first name, and actually slightly changed it in the last ten years so it sounds more exotic I guess? He changed one letter.

@cazzie, are you planning to remain in Norway? or go back home after things get settled (and where is “back home”)?

@glacial My middle name is Anne, and I’m particular about that “e”, too. :)

@fluthernutter I had a childhood nickname, but it really wasn’t suitable for public use (not that that stopped anyone on occasion). It was “Pooh”, haha.

@fluthernutter It was some kind of clusterf*ck thing. The names were originally supposed to be reversed with my middle name, a family name of several generations, being first and my first name, the one my father wanted me called, being the middle one.
My aunt who took me for my christening decided that it should be the way my father wanted since he was the head of the household it so she reversed the names on the certificate.
Dad tried to call me by my first name and this went on for a couple of months but he had to return to sea for several months and by the time he got back my middle name was what my extended family called me.
I understand that for the first year or so every time he came home he tried to call me by my first name until he finally bowed to the inevitable and did it Moms’ way.

@fluthernutter : No, I don’t get misgendered because of my middle name very often. It usually just confuses people when they are in a position to ask for my I.D.

I don’t care if people want to use names to signify gender. It’s not up to me. It’s what almost every human society does.

@Jeruba I’ll be staying here for the time being. I have a job, of sorts and a house (as long as hubby cooperates) and also the opportunity to go back to school and take some more formal education on the cheap.