Baby Middle Name

While the middle name is the place to “go wild” if you held back and picked a more traditional first name for baby, the middle name should not be an afterthought. It deserves careful consideration as well.

First off is the dreaded “bad initials” or “acronym name.” It’s hard to imagine that someone would knowingly name their baby Augustus Stephen Smith (ASS), so we’ll just blame the haze that surrounds new parenthood for these lapses in judgment. But don’t let it happen to you—or your baby! When you think of a name… Also, if you change your minds about your baby’s name at the last minute, be sure to re-check those initials! We don’t need any more Priscilla Iris Gladstones (PIGs) running around. A University of California researcher did a study indicating that men with distasteful initials died sooner than those with more-positive ones. Sometimes, it’s no big deal if your baby’s initials spell something. My son’s initials are AMA, the same as the American Medical Association. We noticed this before we named him, but didn’t mind. By the same token, you might want to reconsider a “cutesy” combination of initials such as Jacqueline Olivia Yancer (JOY).

The above caution may seem obvious, but here’s one you may not have thought of: What about the first name combined with the middle initial? Does that spell anything undesirable? What if your name is abbreviated Anna L., (“anal”), Asa P., Lee K. and such. Imagine something like that showing up in your mail. Even a first name and initial combo with no negative connotation can be confusing when pushed together: Cora L., Eve N. and so on.

Alliteration, in which names start with the same letter or sound, can be fun, but it can also be overdone: Krystal Carey Chandler.

The innocent among us could never imagine cruel children (or even adults) twisting the beautiful name we’ve chosen into a horrid taunt or insult. But the possibility becomes a reality when your precious baby is in fourth grade and the other kids realize that no matter how much you loved your great-aunt Gay, coming off a roll sheet it will likely be met with an unintended reaction followed by (I hope) a lesson against homophobia. I went to high school with a girl named (first name is changed here) Emily Rose Cox. No one that I know of knew her middle name or thought twice about it until the principal spoke her full name solemnly over the microphone at graduation and the entire football stadium, young and old, erupted in laughter. True story, folks. Of course, deflecting such juvenile taunting could help build your child’s character. But at the end of the song, Johnny Cash didn’t really want to be the Boy Named Sue, right?

If you’re naming your baby after something going on in the news, popular culture or even your personal life right now, it could come back to bite you and your baby. Politicians and Spice Girls come and go (and come back again!) but a baby’s name is forever—or at least until he has the bucks to change it legally. When I was in college, I worked with a nice young man named who was born in the 1970s. Your middle name pops up everywhere in college, and this guy was pretty embarrassed that his was “Telly.” His parents were big fans of the actor Telly Savales. My other example here is more personal: My own middle is unheard of; it’s a combination of my mom’s name and that of a male friend who was of great help to her during her unplanned pregnancy at age 18. Unfortunately, the friendship did not last but my middle name is a permanent—though not particularly unwelcome—reminder.