Middling Name

Sixteen years after her debut album Some Hearts, Carrie Underwood released a collection of Christian songs called My Savior, a genre for which her signature was long overdue. My Savior was the perfect companion for the drive to and from Easter church last Sunday. On the other hand, Carrie dabbles in hard-driving, anger-cleansing rants like “Last Name”, which is a convenient segue to today’s topic. What (and why) is your middle name?

Hard to believe, but only 75% of Americans had a middle name in 1970.

Think about it for a sec… when was the last time you used your middle name?  When you pulled out your driver’s license?  Your Social Security card?  When you signed an important document?  Most likely it was for your last airplane ticket.  After all, the name you enter into the reservation has to match the name on the form of identification you provide.

Middle names originated in the Middle Ages (and boy do I love that coincidence). European countries – and much later America – picked up on Italy’s tradition of “double” first names.  Since Italian descendants were often named after parents and grandparents, you had a whole lot of Leonardos and Marcos wandering around.  “Secondary first” names helped distinguish Leo III from Leo IV.  Kind of like George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.

I don’t know anyone – and I mean anyone – who uses their middle name by way of introduction, let alone conversation.  Outside of family members you might know the middle name of a friend or two but that’s about it.  Whatever practical purpose middle names served seems to have come and gone.

Unless you’re me, of course.  “David Wilson” is about as common as “John Smith” (and the reason you readers will never be able to hunt me down… bah-ha-ha!)  Just how common is my name?  Years ago I joined Hertz’s #1 Club and proudly stated my name at the counter for my first rental.  The agent tapped away and then said, “Sorry, but we have over 400 David Wilson’s in our database.  Could you be more specific?”  Then I gave her my middle name (Scott), to which she said, “Okay, so now I still have five of you”.  Sigh…

Girls = “Marie”, Boys = “James”

Scott was a common middle name back when I was born.  In fact, Scott ranked in the top ten boys’ middle names of the 1960s. (See if your middle name is/was a top tenner here.)  Maybe that’s why my parents chose Scott, because I’m not aware of any ancestors with the name.  Then again, Ancestry.com tells me I’m 12% Scottish.  Hey, my parents could’ve gone with “Scot” instead!

Early in my career, my colleagues and I decided to use our middle names in a desperate attempt to sound cooler.  We started referring to each other by first initial and middle name.  Hence I was “D. Scott” around the office (which sounds oh-so pompous in hindsight).  Didn’t last very long and my signature never changed.  I’ve always been a first-name, middle initial, last-name kind of guy with the pen.

Wouldn’t be as elegant without the “S”, don’t you agree?

Chances are your middle name was given to you because it sounded good alongside your first name.  Such was the case with our oldest son Mark.  We came up blank with middle names when he was born, so my wife got in touch with a college friend, whose husband was also Mark.  Mark Christopher.  The middle name sounded great to us so we promptly “adopted” it.  Not that our Mark will ever meet his namesake.

Speaking of my wife, her middle name is Marie; the same middle name given to both of her sisters (and later on to our daughter).  Marie and Ann are the most popular American female middle names of all time (for the males: Lee, Edward, and Michael).  Check those decade lists again – Marie and Ann were tops in 1950 and again for the next forty years.  Ann dropped off a little after that but Marie continues to be the most popular to this day.

Here in the South, a lot of people combine first and middle names.  Hence, Sarah is better known as Sarah Beth and Billy is better known as Billy Bob.  At least they’re using their middle names.  Some of today’s parents are choosing names like “Symphony” and “Rembrandt” to go in the middle.  As if their kids will actually use those names someday, right?  With that in mind, I’d like to thank my parents for (middle) naming me “Scott”.  Sounds just fine to me.

Some content sourced from The Atlantic article, “Middle Names Reveal More Than You Think”, and the Fox8.com article, “The most common middle names from the last 12 decades”.

Author: Dave

Four hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

25 thoughts on “Middling Name”

  1. I admit to a certain fascination with middle names. I had a college roommate who didn’t have a middle name because her parents figured she’d marry and use her current surname as her middle name. Also thinking back to one of my college dorms, I lived on a floor with: CarolSue, KimmiSue, and Karenjean. Unexpectedly southern considering we were in the midwest.

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    1. I neglected to include the surname-as-middle name habit and it’s still going strong. My daughter dropped her “Marie” in favor of “Wilson” as soon as she got married. She said it made for a better-looking monogram 🙂

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  2. Actually I only used my middle name Geoffrey most of my life as my first name on my birth certificate was given merely to honor my Dad. What a pain this century when security was tightened and the name on my bank accounts, driver’s license, airline records, IRS filings, license to practice law, etc., no longer matched my legal name.

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    1. Seems to be a guy thing, taking the middle name over the first. I don’t know any gals who have followed suit.

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  3. In college my mother was known by her middle name, Gloria, but when she got married she went back to Irene. Even in her senior years, she had friends that still called her Gloria. I got the middle name John, because my father thought that Andrew John was a good name for business and it gave me the most options to choice how I called my self as an adult. I could be Andrew J. Reynolds, A. J. Reynolds, A. John Reynolds, Andy Reynolds, etc …

    My mother had suggested naming me John Andrew (my grandfather’s name was Andy), but my father said that he didn’t want a son with the initials J.A.

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    1. Well now, that’s a whole lot more explanation for a middle name than I can give myself. I’ve never heard the “good name for business” approach but it sounds like something a dad might say. Your mother’s change of name reminds me of my niece, a thirty-something who answers to her first name or her middle name (take your pick). We just received her “save the date” for her wedding so now it’s official – we’ll use the name on the card from this point forward (whew!)

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  4. Interesting to learn about middle names! My and my sister’s middle names are names from my aunts on my father’s side.

    In Brazil almost everyone has very long names. We have a first name, a middle name, the mother’s last name and the father’s last name. Then, if the woman gets married just add another last name.

    Since my father’s last name is 3 names, we didn’t get my mom’s last name. Otherwise it would be crazy 🙂

    In the US, I just use my first and last name to avoid confusion.

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    1. Yes, this topic gets a whole lot more complicated outside of the U.S., Ana. For instance, I learned China, Korea, and Japan don’t use middle names at all (which may explain the “only 75% in 1970” statistic in America). Brazil’s approach has a nice ring to it, as long as you get to shorten your signature to two or three of those names!

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    1. That would make me pause as well. As common as my first name-middle name combination might be, I don’t recall ever coming in contact with someone with those same names.

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    1. Interesting! The same is true in some Asian cultures – no middle names. I’m guessing your first name-last name is unique enough to not need a middle name. Mine comes in handy every now and then 🙂

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  7. For some reason my dad and his sister both go by their middle names. He goes by Chris (Donald Christopher – don’t blame him ha!) and his sister goes by Michele (Marie Michele). So most of the time my dad calls me my middle name of Rose. Middle names are interesting, you also have to be careful you don’t give a kid inappropriate initials ha.

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    1. My wife’s initials would’ve been BMW if she hadn’t taken her last name as her middle name after marriage. I’d think the middle-name-as-first-name approach would create logistical issues with identification and signatures but maybe not. I never considered going by my middle name; it’d be like saying to my parents, “Sorry, I like that one better” 🙂

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      1. I think for all legal things/ signatures etc. he still has to go by Donald, but his dad was named Don so I suppose that could’ve been confusing if he did too so they called him Chris.

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  8. Dave, over the years, I’ve worked with quite a few attorneys who used a first initial instead of a first name and went by their middle name. See, I thought it was an “attorney thing”. 🙂 I actually have two middle names and no, none of them are married names. I’ve never been married. But on my baptism certificate from St. Helen’s Church I am “Linda Susan Mary Schaub” … occasionally, my mom would call me by all those names and I knew she might be mad at me about something. When I was young I liked the name “Suzanne” and so I told everyone that was my middle name – not true, even though I liked how it rolled off the tongue and was prettier than just plain “Susan”. The “Mary” part of my name was for my mom, who was Pauline Mary Schaub.

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    1. It’s nice you have something of a story behind your names, Linda. I never thought to ask my parents about my “Scott” while they were still alive.

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      1. Do you have godparents Dave – maybe they can help you out? I have questions I wish I had asked as well and I have no family members left now, so some things will always remain unanswered.

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  9. I never liked or used my middle name, Jean. It was the same name as an aunt I disliked. Later on I adopted my mother’s maiden name as my middle name, Kanin. I was happy to keep that name alive in a small way, as all descendants were women who changed their name at marriage.

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    1. Your comment reminded me of when our kids were born, and my wife dismissed options for names based on unpleasant people she knew with the same name. It seemed a little arbitrary at the time, but I guess she would’ve always had these other people on the brain every time she looked at her child 🙂

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  10. You turned the topic of middle names into a fascinating article, Dave. And your commenters have added more interesting stories! Here’s a fun one, I think: Our younger son met a girl with my exact name–Nancy Ann. He claimed he could not date a girl–no matter how cute–with the same name as his mother. A little more than two years later they were married. She kept her middle name and dropped her maiden name, so we have two Nancy Ann Rueggs in the family!

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    1. What a wonderful coincidence! Glad your son didn’t let a name get in the way of true love. At the opposite end of the spectrum, my wife is “Brigid”, a name that is old Irish and very rarely used in this country. She gets all kinds of creative spellings and pronunciations by people who don’t believe what they hear, even when she spells it one letter at a time. I didn’t let her name get in the way either 🙂

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  11. What a great topic! Mine is unusual – Pierce. My parents chose it because my father was James Pierce Jr., and of course his father was James Pierce Sr. We kept the string going when we named our eldest James Pierce IV. What is interesting is that my father’s sister married a guy whose first name was Pierce, and I also have a first cousin named Pierce.

    Before my son became a Dominican Catholic priest, he majored in sports broadcasting. He started going by Pierce in place of his first name because he thought it sounded more distinctive for broadcasting – and he was probably right about that.

    My wife never got a middle name, for reasons neither of us ever figured out, because all of her four siblings have middle names. Maybe her parents hadn’t figured out this part of parenting with their first kid. Marianne made up her own middle name (Elizabeth) because she liked it, and started using it on legal documents. Then sometime in the early 2000s she got a notice that she could not use Elizabeth on her drivers license because it did not match her record with Social Security. Now she is back to not having a middle name.

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    1. I think a middle name is perfect as a legacy to relatives gone by. The approach certainly has more meaning than whatever simply sounds good after the first name. And your wife’s predicament is a new one on me. Far eastern cultures don’t use middle names, but to not use one with one child and then use them with the other children is really strange. I don’t blame her for wanting to be “like the rest of us”.

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