Middle name

A middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between a person's given name and surname.^[1][2] A person may be given a middle name regardless of whether it is necessary to distinguish them from other people with the same given name and surname. In cultures where a given name is expected to precede the surname, additional names can be placed after the given name and before the surname,^[3] and are therefore called middle names.

In some cultures a middle name is often abbreviated and is then called a middle initial or initial. This is common in America and the Philippines. The use of middle names is rare in some countries, such as China, Japan and Korea. The origins of the usage of middle names can be traced to Roman times and the use of middle names re-emerged in Italy in the 13th century.

In ancient Rome, aristocratic male Romans used a naming system called tria nomina, which included three distinct parts to the name, a praenomen (personal name), nomen (family name), and cognomen. As the nomen was placed in the middle, it had a different usage compared to how middle names are used now.^[4][5]

The use of middle names re-emerged in Italy in the 13th century and by the late 1400's, it was common for upper class families in Italy to use middle names, with this later spreading to other social classes.^[6] This trend caught on across Europe, particularly for people from wealthy families.^[4] In Germany, middle names had become commonly used by the 17th century, with German immigrants being noted as bringing this custom to America.^[7] In the first decade of the 19th century in France most boys did not have a middle name, but by the last decade of this century 46% of boys had one middle name and 23% of boys had two middle names.^[4]

It was also during the 19th century that Americans of European decent started to more commonly use middle names,^[8] whilst in Britain middle names started to be used more frequently by the middle classes, who took this trend from the nobility.^[9] By the early 20th century, birth records show that in North Carolina, most children had a middle name, as did their parents.^[7] The first government documents in America that requested a middle name were WW1 enlistment forms, in 1914.^[10]

Not every name that stands as the middle word in a three-name string is a middle name. Examples of this include:

• When part of a two-word given name, also known as a double name^[11]
• When part of a two-word surname, referred to as double barrelled names^[12] or compound surnames^[13]
• A maiden name expressed: for example, Hillary Clinton (née Rodham) is sometimes known as Hillary Rodham Clinton^[14]

In the United States, the middle name is often abbreviated to the middle initial. This first became popular in the 19th century. Examples of famous people who abbreviated their middle names include John D. Rockefeller, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Susan B. Anthony.^[15]

In countries that primarily speak English—such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom—the forename of a relative is sometimes used as one's middle name to honor familial heritage. In many cases in the United States, however, a person's middle name does not derive from relatives, but is used instead to honor close family friends or notable public figures.^[16]

A rare case of an individual being given only an initial as a middle name, with the initial not explicitly standing for anything, was Harry S. Truman.^[17] Other people with single-letter middle names include Robert B. Hollander Jr. and Mark M Davis.^[18][19] Jennifer 8. Lee, an American author was not given a middle name at birth so she chose "8" when she was a teenager, in recognition of her Chinese ancestry because the number eight symbolizes prosperity and good luck.^[20]

More than two given middle names is fairly common. In Britain, the use of two middle names is traditionally more common among the upper and middle classes.^[21]

The abbreviations "N.M.N." (no middle name) and "N.M.I." (no middle initial), are sometimes used in formal documents in the United States, where a middle initial or name is expected but the person does not have one. Sometimes middle initials have been used to make a persons name more distinct. Screenwriter David X. Cohen was born David Samuel Cohen, but adopted the middle initial "X" when he joined the Writers Guild of America, as there was already a member named David S. Cohen, and the union forbid multiple writers from using the same name.^[22]

Traditional names in India vary regionally due to its ethnic and religious diversity. Modern Hindu names across India use a first name, which is usually a word in Sanskrit or an indigenous Indian language, a middle name (in rare instances), which is usually the name of a child's father or spouse, followed by a surname which is usually the caste that the person's family belongs to, taken from the father or husband.^[23] Middle and last names from the traditionally matrilineal Nair community in Kerala were historically based on the mother's family.^[24]

Among the Sikhs of India, many have adopted the middle name Singh or Kaur which mean lion and princess respectively. This is sometimes followed by their Punjabi caste surname.^[25] Among Indian Muslims, similar naming conventions to Hindus and Sikhs are followed, but the names are usually in Arabic, Persian or Urdu.^[26]

Middle names mostly use the mother's maiden surname, inserted between the given name and the surname (father's surname) and are almost always abbreviated, signifying that it is a "middle name".^[27]

The naming conventions of Scandinavian countries do not call given names middle names.^[28][29][30] While extra first names often are referred to as middle names in everyday language, laws do not reflect that and consider all of them first names. A person can have multiple first names,^[31] but usually, only one of them is used to address the person. A passport contains all names, but all except the surname are listed as first/given names. Names combined with a hyphen are counted as one name. A person named "Ulrika Britt-Inger Marie Fredriksson" has three first names and one last name, and this individual could choose to go by any of those three first names.^[32]

In Denmark and Norway, the legal term middle name refers most often to names that were originally surnames, but not part of the last name of the name bearer. A middle name could be a persons mother's maiden name or the last name of another recent ancestor (for instance a grandparent).^[33] In Sweden, however, although middle names were introduced in the Name Act of 1963, they were later called tilläggsnamn (added name), and then mellannamn (middle name) in the Name Act of 1983. The name act of 2017 removed the concept entirely. Existing last-name middle names may still be used, but can no longer be given.^[34]

The component that appears in the middle of a Vietnamese personal name is not properly called a tên giữa (middle name), but rather a tên đệm (lit. 'padding word'), and it is optional. The tên đệm differs from the Western middle name in both function and usage: it cannot be used independently and must be used together with the first given name when addressing a person. For this reason the tên đệm is generally regarded as an optional component of a given name, rather than a separate middle name. Thị is a traditional middle name which means that the person is female. The masculine equivalent is Văn.^[35]

Both girls and boys are typically given a middle name based on their Dads first name. For girls, often ovna or evna is added to the end, whereas for boys ovich or evich is sometimes added to the end.^[36]

Most people are not given middle names in China. Later in life, some Chinese people anglicise or change their names, sometimes including middle names.^[36] In Korea and Japan, middle names are also seldom used.^[8]

• Icelandic name
• Personal name
• Roman naming conventions

Wikiquote has quotations related to Middle name.

• The impact of middle names: Middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance