Baby Middle Name

I have several friends and family members who chose to give their babies more than one middle name. In one case, it was a desire to not only pick an additional much-liked name but also to honor a recently deceased mentor. When this couple had their second child, the new baby got two middle names, too—but her older sister got to pick one of them!

In another case, parents wanted their new daughter to bear the name of her aunt, who had recently passed away. But making the aunt’s first and middle name the one the new baby would go by seemed a little too intense, so the baby got an original first name, followed by the first and middle name of her beloved aunt.

Some babies get two middle names in the name of keeping the family peace: This way, parents can honor both the mother’s mother (or father) and the father’s mother (or father) by giving the baby both names as middle names. Of course, if your family members are easily slighted, you could still get an argument over whose name comes first! Just blow it off.

There’s really no limit to the number of middle names a baby can have. Take the summer 2007 case of a baby from the United Kingdom whose parents gave her the first name of Autumn but followed that up with the names of 25 heavyweight boxers. Try fitting that on a job application!