Many people's names include one or more middle names, placed between the first name and the last name. In the West, a middle name is someone's Christian- or forename, other than their first name. Often a male's middle name will be his father's first name. Middle names are sometimes used as part of a given name, particularly among females in certain settings who may have many classmates also named "Mary" or instead of their first given name, especially males whose first name is the same as their father's.

Despite their relatively long existence in the Western world, the phrase "middle name" was not coined until 1835 in "Harvardiana", a school song of Harvard. Since 1905, "middle name" gained a figurative connotation meaning a notable or outstanding attribute of a person. This figurative use is especially popular in films (see "Quotes" in External links).

Anglo-Saxon

Middle names are chosen by parents at the same time as the first name. Popular middle names are identical to those of first names, such as John, James, David, etc., with an emphasis on biblical figures (again, like first names).

American Southerners often are referred familiarly to by both their first and middle names, such as Billy Joe and M.E. (Mary Elizabeth). Also, a substantial number of Southerners use their middle names in place of their first names; this practice appears to be less common in other parts of the United States.

Some middle names sound antiquated because they are chosen from those of the family's ancestors, as the parents may have chosen them by glancing over the family tree.

Aside from the most popular middle names taken from first names, surnames (such as Hall or Walker) may also be taken as middle names, sometimes to commemorate a relative by such names. In some families, it is popular to use the mother's maiden name as the middle name as a way to acknowledge the mother's family name. Naturally this is not common in cultures that already include the mother's family name by means such as hyphenated last names.

Sometimes in popular references, only the first letter is used (e.g., John A. Macdonald), or the middle names are unmentioned (Herbert Hoover). Occasionally, while the middle is given full, only the first letter of the first name is used (e.g., W. Somerset Maugham) or unmentioned (e.g., Woodrow Wilson).

Examples of multiple middle names: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor (Queen Elizabeth II), J. R. R. Tolkien, and V. V. S. Laxman.

Catholic

Males in Catholic communities (mostly Belgian, French, Italian, Spanish and Polish Catholics) are sometimes given what would otherwise be considered a female middle name, especially Marie or Maria. In France, the most common case is to give a compound first name, such as Jean-Marie or, more rarely, André-Marie or Bernard-Marie; more rarely, Marie is used as third or subsequent given name.

Hispanic females, similarly, sometimes have the middle name Juan. This is particularly common in Roman Catholic families, as a practice aimed at "divine protection" from both sexes (the male trinity and the Virgin Mary).

East and Southeast Asian

Sometimes the first syllables of Chinese and Korean given names are considered middle names, because they are positioned in the middle of a name (if the person has a two-syllable name), like Wong Shan-leung, where Shan is the "middle". This is technically incorrect, since many Chinese have only one syllable in their given name, so there is no middle position in their full name. Another possible cause for this misconception is due to the fact that (in Mandarin at least) each syllable is an individual word/character. (See Chinese name, Korean name, Japanese name)

Many Asian immigrants and Taiwanese personalities anglicize their given name and convert it to an authentic middle name, after a native English first name, such as James Chu-yu Soong and Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (the second syllable of the middle name is officially not capitalized, but usually is in overseas Chinese's names). If the Chinese given name has two syllables, it may be written as "two" middle names, especially Cantonese ones, such as Teresa Shan Leung Wong. There are also a minority whose Chinese given names are their first names, and have English middle names.

Vietnamese traditionally have middle names (chữ dem or chữ lót) that distinguish between the sexes. Over 80% of Vietnamese women have Thị (meaning "woman") as their middle names. There are more male middle names, such as Văn ("scholar"), Hữu, Duc, Đình, Xuân, Ngoc, Quang, and Cong. The Nguyen royalties' middle names are from a generation poem. Vietnamese middle names are often not used now, especially among males. In a 1988 study, 22% of Vietnamese males have no middle names.

South Asians

South Asians, particularly Indians, generally take their fathers' first names as their middle names. After South Asian females marry, they change their middle names' to their husbands' first names.

See Also: Name, culture

External links

• Generation poem of the Nguyens
• Chữ lót, from ViệtWiki