Middle Names

[Craig Jessop]

My last name does not start with M, but my middle name is also Elisabeth! Only with an S, not a Z.

Ah, yes, and I'm sure you remember what your first name rhymes with.

[bobtheenchantedone]

My last name does not start with M, but my middle name is also Elisabeth! Only with an S, not a Z.

Ah, yes, and I'm sure you remember what your first name rhymes with.

Are you talking about the time you told me to go to hell?

[Katya]

So, I'm a little confused.... Why does one need to drop any name upon getting married?

Good question. I think it's just common in our society to have no more than three names. A lot of official forms, etc., don't have room for four names or two middle initials, so you'd end up picking just one, a lot of the time, anyway.

In related news, an adjunct professor at my university has just one name, so the directory lists him as G---------------, Mr., instead of giving a first name.

[NerdGirl]

In related news, an adjunct professor at my university has just one name, so the directory lists him as G---------------, Mr., instead of giving a first name.

I would feel pretty ripped off about that if that were me.

[Katya]

In related news, an adjunct professor at my university has just one name, so the directory lists him as G---------------, Mr., instead of giving a first name.

I would feel pretty ripped off about that if that were me.

He's a member of the Wampanoag nation, so I imagine having only one name is traditional. (Plus, it's a really cool name.)

[TheAnswerIs42]

So, I was talking with a friend for lunch today and asked her about this. She said she had given her daughter a middle name. But she didn't have a middle name, and never thought much about that. And then a year or so after she got married, her mother mentioned that she did that since she assumed she would keep her maiden name as her middle name when she got married . . . but that thought had never occured to my friend! So she still has no middle name. For apparently no reason.

[Tao]

I've a Polynesian friend with five middle names. I believe he just picks one when filling out forms (ooo! perhaps give enough middle names that you can make a recursive acronym). I'm not sure what to think about going without a middle name. How would you know your parents were serious when calling you?

[C is for]

I am not sure my parents ever called me by my full name. Maybe I never got in trouble? They probably did, and I was so horrible I blocked it out.

I really like my middle name and my surname, so I'll probably continue to use both after I'm married. Or pick whichever initial goes best with my new surname.

Or...just use them together as an awesome pen name for when I write those novels that everyone plans to write in their lives.

[Craig Jessop]

What if your last name doesn't change? Hmmm?

[Tao]

What if your last name doesn't change? Hmmm?

Wrong group of mormons. Marrying siblings is bad.

[C is for]

What if your last name doesn't change? Hmmm?

Uh...the chances of that happening more than once in one family are ridiculously small. The chances of it happening even once in one family are pretty small.

[Whistler]

My opinion on this is based on a BYU genealogist who said that it was waaaay easier to find relations of women who kept their maiden names somehow. So I've elected to keep my maiden name as a middle name (even though our records are better now, who knows what the future will hold! (electronic apocalypse?)).

[Dead Cat]

What if your last name doesn't change? Hmmm?

Uh...the chances of that happening more than once in one family are ridiculously small. The chances of it happening even once in one family are pretty small.

Shamazam!

[Katya]

My opinion on this is based on a BYU genealogist who said that it was waaaay easier to find relations of women who kept their maiden names somehow. So I've elected to keep my maiden name as a middle name (even though our records are better now, who knows what the future will hold! (electronic apocalypse?)).

That's good of you to keep future genealogists in mind. As for me, I have to live with my name choices every day, so put I my own preferences as the highest priority.

[Katya]

What if your last name doesn't change? Hmmm?

My 3rd grade teacher was named Miss Wolfley, and then she married another Wolfley (a distant cousin) and became Mrs. Wolfley. The day she told us she was getting married, all of the other kids kept asking if she was marrying her brother and she wasn't. And then I came home and told my mom that Miss Wolfley was going to become Mrs. Wofley and she didn't believe me.

[C is for]

For the record, Craig is poking a bit of fun at me because he knows my sister married someone with the same last name. It's going to be an interesting cognitive leap for their kids to realize that most people don't have two sets of grandparent [our surname]s.

But it just ain't gonna happen to me.

[mic0]

I just found an article today about women changing their names for marriage. But not just last names! It's interesting.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/ ... other-name

[vorpal blade]

I'm late to make a comment here, but perhaps someone will find this interesting.

A comment made a few years ago on the Board has some interesting statistics for a stake in California. See http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/25279/

The conclusion was

I conclude that it is not popular to give daughters only two names in active LDS families, those who do are not more likely to be active members than those who don't, and that those who had only two names before marriage rarely use (on Church records) their maiden name as a middle name after they are married. In Utah giving girls only two names and having them keep their maiden name after marriage is probably more common than elsewhere in the United States.

[Wisteria]

I'm *really* late to make comments here, but there is zero trend for girls having/not having middle names in my family. two of my sisters do not and me and my other sister do. Interestingly, my mom insisted that I get a middle name when she agreed to my dad's choice of first name for me. My first name is a European family name of one of his ancestors who immigrated to America, but most people equate it with a Hispanic name- and i have not Latina blood, although people have been confused when they have met me that I don't look Latin. My mom wanted me to have another option in case I didn't like my first name. I used to not really like my first name, and I still don't think it fits me, but it's grown on me a lot. My middle name I love but I've never successfully gone by it.

Also, my mom doesn't have a middle name because y grandma does, and she always thought it was a huge pain to have all those names to juggle around. I find this humorous, especially since her middle name is "Lee" and her last name is "Clark." All those huge, long names . . .

Also, when my big sister was about four, she figured out that my brother had my dad's name for a middle name, but that she didn't have a middle name. She figured that rather than petition to get my mom's name as her middle name, she would make up her own. The result was that she dubbed herself with the middle name of "milkcarton." heh.

[vorpal blade]

I think the Board writer The Peanut Gallery was offended by my comment, though I was trying to be nice. http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/25279/

What do you think?