About your middle name ...

[MarkD]

I use my middle name. I've never used my first name.

My wife also uses her middle name, Lia, after one of her father’s sisters. Growing up she found there were always 2 or 3 in every classroom with her first name, Susan. I suspect Mary is the most popular girl’s name but Lia, Italian version of Leah, is also biblical and so much in use. She has women in her family on her Mother’s side with the more obscure biblical names Drusilla and Persis.

When it came time to name her son, my wife named him Kalle after the son of her best friend in Sweden where they spent a year early on. But she gave him James as a middle name after her father just in case he didn’t appreciate having an obscure first name. He uses Kalle. Interestingly Lia’s father was given the first name Jim. As the youngest child of immigrants and the only on born here they wanted him to have a good, American sounding name. He never went by James.

 

[C50]

My middle name is Howard, very old fashioned and I've never cared for it. I was always told it was my mothers father's first name, but when I was around 16 I found out his name was actually Thomas. Turns out my grandmother's second husband was named Howard.

Frankly it made no difference to me but for some reason it was one of those family secrets no one talked about.

 

[AnnieA]

I use my middle name. I've never used my first name.

Same. I'm named after a great-grandmother and have always been called by my middle name since my parents liked it better.

 

[jujube]

I had a distant relative who tended to be a bit grandiose about names. She named her two children very pretentious first and middle names (not family related) like Adelaide Winthrop and Chamberlain Cromwell (names changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike, but not all that far off.....). She'd use both names all the time, like: "Adelaide Winthrop, come inside now. You, too, Chamberlain Cromwell!" It was a little over the top.

 

[Sassycakes]

Until I was in High School I thought my middle name was Ann until a Nun told me Ann was part of my first name. So my middle name is Lucy.

 

[EmptyCup]

It’s my father’s and grandfather’s first name. Never used it as it would add to the confusion.

 

[Lewkat]

My birth middle name is Evalena. It was my father's mother's name. I've only ever met one other person who had the same name.

 

[Been There]

My middle name is Jonathan, which was named in honor of my dad. My first name was in honor of my grandfather.