Why Do We Have Middle Names? 

Middle names are also used to tell when your parents are really really mad at you.

We have a special tradition in our family where the first born daughters Middle name is her mothers first name. It’s very special for us and goes back several generations. So example… Rachael Victoria. My mother is Victoria Jean. Her mother is Jean Emily. And my great grandmother is Emily Rose and so on and so on. If I had a daughter her middle name would be (first name) Rachael. It’s something special that we Made up for ourselves and is merely ornamental But still holds a special place in our hearts.

0:15 yes:to know when your mom is pissed off at you

In Mexico you tend to have four names that usually go: Personal Name + 2nd Personal Name + Father's Surname + Mother's Surname For example my name is Carmen Maria Randolph Fajardo The shortened version for introductions is typically just your personal name and your father's surname. Plus you also have people with compound personal names.

Those “bookshelves” are the best pun ever. Good job set designers.

I don't have a middle name and people often freak out when I tell then :o

I literally just asked this question at lunch and no one knew the answer. Man, you guys make me feel so smart after watching your videos!

I'm Romanian and it's common practice to give children multiple first names (we call them prenames). It's usually done to pay homage to some significant relative or for religious reasons (one name can be a saint's name given to protect the child). Most of the time, people have a name their mother chose and a name their father chose, or a name the couple chose together and a name that relatives chose (grandparents, uncles/aunts, godparents). Also, sometimes there's a hyphen added between the two prenames to signify that they're equally important. However, most people only go by their first prename (first first name) because they rarely like both of them. Even parents only call the child by the first prename, but the other one is also used in every legal document. Unless the full name is written, legal documents aren't valid. In these instances, the hyphen matters A LOT. I've had collegues struggle with their school documents because of a misplaced hyphen. Also, we sign all legal documents with our family name (last name) first, followed by the prenames in the order from the birth certificate. However, in informal settings, we present ourselves starting with our prefered prename. The middle initial is a whole other story. Some legal documents use the father's first name initials between the last and first name of the child for a more detailed identification. Let's take this example: a child named Popescu I. Maria-Ioana, Popescu Ion's child. Popescu is her last name (family name), I. is her father's first name initial and Maria-Ioana are her prenames. She would most likely go by Maria, since it's the first prename. I'm really curious about the origin of these practices in my country, I haven't really thought about this until now. Thank you for the video 🙌🏻

I was named by Filipino naming conventions, so my second name is part of my legal first name and my middle name is my mother's maiden name. Because of that, I always write my second name immediately after my first. It caused loads of problems when I was in elementary school. "Stop writing your middle name." "It's not my middle name. It's my second name."

I have names in 4 different languages, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cantonese, and I made my own English name in court cause I'm tired of people butchering my beautiful name. But guess what, people still don't know how to pronounce my white name, how hard is it to say Hailey?

My middle name is my father's mothers maiden name. As an orphan, this led me, through my genealogy, to dozens and dozens of relatives. Without that name, I might still be lost to the Family.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt His name was my name too!

It’s true that middle names are not used and kind of make no sense in Korea. I’m from America and have two middle names, and when I studied abroad there there was a lot of confusion at first because no administrative database thought I was enrolled/existed, until I realized I needed to use my middle names to search. On all paperwork, there are only boxes for given and family names, but since no part of a name is disregarded in Korea I had to cram my three given names into that box made for two Korean characters, otherwise it would cause administrative confusion. Almost every Korean there is named using exactly three syllables (one for family and two for given,) so when professors came upon my nine syllable name it always broke their stride in role call 😂

You just forgot to add that, at least in countries like Brazil, middle names are not as common as in America. Instead, Brazilians use NAME + MOM'S SURNAME + DAD'S SURNAME.

Oddly enough Hungarians put their last name before their first name unlike any other Europeans (and they rarely have second names). The Hungarian language also doesn’t fit in with the rest of Europe, only being very distantly related to Finnish and Estonian.

OMG!!!! I love this channel and she pronounced my last name correctly!! Thank you guys for this video!!!

Apparently, it was a Mexican trend once to name all girls Maria and all boys Jose in a family. The middle name then served as their identifier and usually was selected from the Catholic calendar. I found this out when my dad, Jose, said his brother, Jose, had just pasted away. I had to ask him which Jose. Afterwards his sister clarified that all her brothers were Jose (even the uncles I didn’t call Jose) and all the girls were Maria, (which none went by). I think this trend was probably specific to a time and region and more than likely it was typical of a specific socioeconomic class. Maria is so common as a first name that it has its own abbreviation and in the case with my maternal aunt, she doesn’t even consider it her first name, more of a prefix to her name. On my mom’s side that aunt is the only one named Maria and the only one with two names.

Not having a "proper" name can be confusing, however you try to work with it. I am told that a great aunt (never met nor even knew about her until recently) named RG. Pronounced, apparently, AR GEE. One of those odd things in Readers Digest ha I remember from at least 60 years ago was about a man who had only the initials R and B before his family name Jones. When he had to fill out forms, they were often flagged and return as incomplete. He finally decided on this: R(only) B(only) which resulted in getting letters address to Ronly Bonly Jones.

In Eritrea (at least the Tigrinya ethnic group), you are given a name and your surname is your father's name. However, Eritreans in the United States have a middle name. Their middle name is their father's name and their surname is their paternal grandfather's name. Also, when a man and a woman get married, the woman will not change her surname. In a family with a mom, a dad, and a child, each person has a different surname. Isn't that neat!

About “middle names” in Chinese languages, we don’t actually have a concept of middle name. People usually have a surname, and their “first name”. Both of them can be consisted of one to two characters. There is no middle name in Chinese naming system. What resembles as a second(-ary) name called ‘字’ was used by ancient figures such as poets, writers, rulers etc. One chooses a secondary name for themselves that represents their character, ambition etc. It went out of use completely after WWII

In Africa ( specifically Ghana the ewe tribe) we give 4 name English name+traditional name+spiritual name ( which depends on the day you're born on)+ surname.. So I am Marian Enam Esi Kushigbor.

Here in Brazil is really common to have two first names, and both matricarcal and partriacal surnames. But I got two surnames from my father anyway having a total of 5 names João Victor Araújo e Rocha de Carvalho

i thought it was so you know you're in trouble when your mum yells at you

middle names were a godsend when I worked in registrations - being able to differentiate all the different John Smith's was extremely useful when dealing with personal records. I'd always breathe a sigh of relief when I saw people's middle names on file.

My mother gave me a masculine first name (followed by a masculine sir name) so when I applied for jobs I wouldn’t be sexualized (when looking at my resume) or looked down upon as a woman. However, she did give me a feminine middle name so I could still appreciate my woman hood and still have a way to identity myself as a woman. I think she did this because she was looked down a lot for being a woman and just wanted the best for me.

As a name nerd, I loooved hearing about this history! I was all so fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

you folks are doing the most amazing thing, so genuinely delighted with every video, BLESS!

One of my favorite channels! I get excited everything there is a new video! I love my first and middle name because they are super unique.

Ha! Her hair changed in the middle!

What about the African traditions of naming a children. Lets shed some light on that too.

I was thought so much more then I expected. Thank you and I will need to watch again to keep all this info straight.

Great video, thank you for posting! Can't wait to check out some of your other videos!

My grandmother's family had a fairly long running tradition of naming all the girls Margaret and calling them by their middle names. This made it way easier to trace maternal lines in the family. My grandmother's family was mainly English and Irish though. It stopped during my mother's generation though :(.

In the Arabian peninsula, middle names can stretch for as long as you want, because they reflect patrial generations (father's name -> grandfather's name -> great grandfather's name -> ...etc) and then the last name. Usually with a "ben" (son of) or a "bint" (daughter of) in between the names. The last name is actually not considered a "name" but more of an adjective that reflects the tribe your family linage is coming from. In official papers they usually ask for either the tripartite full name with (first name + 2 middle names + last name) or the quaternary full name (first name + 3 middle names + last name).

I am SO using this in my classes! This video was SO GOOD! Thank you!!!

I love that you showed that painting by Fragonard! The Swing is so awesome.

Thank you for this! I literally have six names! ( Two first, two middle and two last) after learning the origin as to why this may occur I now take pride in all my of my many names!

This is so interesting! I always heard that we had middle names because names have power, and people who know your full name have power over you, so middle names are like a secret name, so people don't know your full name and have power over you. Silly I know, but I really like it even if it totally isn't true 😂

This is the first time that I have seen you on RU-vid. You have a great voice for narrating these videos. Interesting topic and well-done presentation.

this is so extremely interesting and i love how it's different in different parts of the world. thank you!

That was interesting. My middle name comes from my Mom's side of the family and is shared with my grandpa and a few of my cousins. So it's somewhat of a family name. This was a very informative video. I liked it.

When I was at MIT in 1960, there was a sign on the door of the Dean of Students, which said, "Be prepared to spell your name in full. If unsure, check identification." Initially I thought this was a joke, but later considered that it could be due to the multiple saint's names some Catholics had.

I just love your videos & the beautiful glow in your personality! Thanks & much love!

Cool video :D In Portugal, we tend to represent both of our family's surnames, and not consider them as middle names at all, something like "First name" "maternal grandmother maiden name", "paternal grandmother maiden name", "mothers maiden name", "fathers surname". Also, in the past, there was a tradition to give two personal names, where boys got the first name Manuel and girls the first name Maria, which led to people just calling themselves by their middle name- like Maria Isabel just calling herself Isabel. I quite like having so many surnames, makes me feel closer to my ancestors, although it's a pain when you need to fill in forms xD

My mum wanted my brother and I to take on one of our grandparents names so that they wouldn't be lost. My brother's middle name is therefore rather unusual "Hamilton", which is more often a surname than a first name. The Germans have rules on assigning names and did not allow Hamilton as a first or middle name, so my mum took her birth certificate which showed that it was actually my grandfather's first name so they allowed it. Luckily the clerk didn't realize that all of my grandpa's first and middle names were actually surnames. I guess my great grandparents thought it was funny to do so :D Having your middle name from on of your ancestors is actually a great way to be a part of your family's history. I somehow feel closer connected to my grandma, who I was named after, without ever having met her.

In Spain we normally have a personal name, our father’s first surname and our mother’s first surname. It’s getting less and less common to have middle names, but if we do, it has something to do with our Christian name or something like that. A friend of mine needed to be called Dakota de las Mercedes, because otherwise she couldn’t have been baptized back in the day, hahaha.

Interesting video! ( & the shelf in the background is everything.👍)

I'm from Sweden and there is a fairly recent trend in my mother's side of the family of giving children 'middle' names in front of their personal names, or sticking the personal name between two 'middle' names. My mom has the initials V.I.B but goes by I, I have the initials A.P.L.K.B but have always gone by Paula and my brother N.A.R.K.B goes by R (we also have both of our parents' last names, to confuse things further). It's convenient when telemarketers want to talk to V, A or N and none of them are in. ;)

One thing to note is that in Pablo Picasso's name, everything before Ruiz y Picasso are given names. Ruiz is his paternal family name and Picasso is his maternal family name. So while we usually talk about him with his maternal last name his paternal last name is legally the principal name he would use.

That Hamilton reference tho.

She is a beautiful speaker! loved listening you go sis!

I throughly enjoyed the presentation of this video.

There are many cultures where most people don't have middle names.

Each of my kids have two middle names. I have a love of names in general, and it was difficult to narrow down to just two names (a first and middle), so we decided to use three for each, a first and two middles. Plus, I had a friend growing up who has two middle names, and she always loved it, so I thought... why not? :-)

Very informative, thank you.

My dad was a lawyer and used his middle initial. Great info! Also, miss you much Dad...Charles L House

I love this host!

Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. I loved that reference

Thank very much you are great explaning.

This episode is unique and interesting. Thanks.

Arabs don't have middle names like that, it goes like this first name then father's name then surname (which is family/tribe name). because linage is important amongst arabs we have father's name then grandfather's name then great grandfather's name etc can go for a long way back. for example Sarah Mohamed Hussain Saleh Al-Murri

French names are weird. No middle names but multiple first names. And if you're Catholic? Then you've also got Marie or Joseph in there. Plus you get sons named after the father while having their own name. So for example my grandfather was Joseph-Jean-Marc, and went by Jean. His 3 sons were Joseph-Jean-Marc, Joseph-Jean-Luc, and Joseph-Jean-Benoit. All 3 of THEM going by the last name in the 3. So Marc, Luc, and Benoit. Although it kinda got disrupted with my brother bc of the Scottish tradition of naming first sons directly after the father on my mom's side, so he's Joseph-Luc-André, but instead of going by André, he goes by Luc, and Luc-André around my dad's side of the family to avoid confusion. And then my sister and I have Marie hyphenated into our first names but we have middle names 🤷‍♂️ [Idk how true this is for French people elsewhere, we're French Canadian, and I know a lot of linguistic stuff is different for us]

I know this is random, but I love how at 1:31 the king is saying “awesome, wow.” Great Hamilton reference! 💛🖤💛

Great show!!

In Italy people don't usually have middle names. I have one though, Annamaria, after my paternal grandma's first name.

1:35 That Hamilton reference tho

Great educational video!

I love your engaging speaking style!

Just found this channel and I'm super stoked that not only do you give fun information, but I'm really glad that it's hosted by a woman of color. Keep up the good work, and I'm definitely subscribing!

What about a video on "sugar rush"? Is that even a thing? Because I live in Brazil and this American concept that if a kid eats candy/too much candy they start to scream, jump, shout obscenities, kick adults, have their heads doing a 360º and will never ever sleep again... really? That stuff often shows in American films and is something that I always believed to be some weird movie trope, but recently I've spoken with some Americans and they REALLY seem to believe that that is a thing, and will point out that their kid get hyperactive at birthday parties as a proof. Do Americans put coke on their sugar? Because I can't imagine another explanation for something like that only affecting children from one country in the world. Except, maybe, confirmation bias (the child overhears the parents saying that they are gonna get crazy and not sleep because they ate sugar and thus the kid happily obliges, or the parents not noticing that it is a party full of kids running about and not the cake that makes the kids jump and scream, perhaps?). I say American because Brazil is, historically, a sugar producing country, and while sugar is a very unhealthy sweetener, I literally don't know a single Brazilian that would find normal if their kids begun to behave like demons from another dimension after eating too much candy. They would probably just have a stomachace and ask to cuddle for a while. I am really curious about where did this myth of "sugar = demonic possession" originate.

The sixth toe 😄 I learnt a lot seriously. I like this program.

It is so interesting to see how different cultures give names and what the significance to it is. When I was in Taiwan, I had some interesting conversations with my coworkers about names, because sometimes they would want me to pick out an English name for them or for our students. They were surprised that it was common to use an ancestor's name in English names, since it was common for them to get their names chosen several days after being born by consulting the fortune teller.

The origin of Standard 52-card deck.

anyone else noticed that her style changes partway through? lol

My middle name is Siobhan and when I was younger I wasn't found of it, but over time I started liking it. It actually flows really nicely with my whole name, and with a French first name and a English last name it sounds really unique. It also connects me to my maternal Irish roots, I was born and raised in England with my English father but it's nice to have a reminder that I have roots elsewhere.

Middle names are important in the film industry too. Many unions and guilds such as SAG-AFTRA and the WGA/DGA require all members to have unique names for the purposes of screen credits. This is the reason many actors, writers and directors use their middle name or initial.

You really tried not to be Anglo-centric in the video, which I really appreciate. This said, the very words Middle names are completely Anglo-centric, and are nearly meaningless in most other languages, even European ones. You hint to this, you go so far as to show that the words make no sense in Korean (most languages in tha region of the world have somewhat similar naming systems). That's all good, and I thank you for this. This being said, you never actually say that Middle names *today* are only mostly used in Anglophone countries. In Francophone countries, just to give an example, you very often have dual prénoms (first names), some with a hyphen, some without, and neither of these two first names are a middle name. For example, Marie-Claude or Jean Marie. Jean Marie is a dual first name; they are a prénom together. Among French Canadians and Acadians in Canada, children have traditionally been given *several* prénoms; girls get Marie as the very first of these, boys getting Joseph, and their usual name, the one you get called by is the last in the list, the closest to the family name. For example, a boy is named Joseph Martin Xavier Tremblay, called habitually Xavier Tremblay. None of these prénoms are middle names, and the first name is not his First name.

I've always found Arabic naming tradition to be really fascinating. As someone who does genealogy, and minored in history in college, the idea that your name is literally a string of your ancestors' names, going back a set number of generations is really useful. "First Name", son/daughter of "father's name", son of "grandfather's name", etc., etc., of the family "Surname". Pretty much prevents people from having too similar of a name, while simultaneously giving patrilineal family history.

Two of my older brothers used their middle names to the extent that I was ten before I learned that those weren't their first names.

Fun and informative video!

Trust India to have other variants, particularly in South. 1 2 3 4 And there can be other variants along those lines too. I have seen many with four or five initials before their names.

My dad's name as a Russian patronymic would me weird because he has an extremely Scottish first name. Thus I have a very Irish name.

This is enlightening. My middle name is a surname from my mother's side of the family which I guess is sort of matrinimic as you described. My brother's middle name is another surname taken from my mother's lineage. I always found it odd everyone else I knew had middle names that you would use as first names rather than a middle name more akin to a surname. Apparently it was just a different custom.

Thank You for this great Information you are so great to have helped out with my name

Extra toes! Polydactyly!! I love genetic mutations! like extra fingers/toes (single mutation) which happens to be genetically dominate. Those who either expressed it were killed or potentially bred the trait out or now removed with surgery. I find it interesting how our choices of our environment have such an effect on our gene pool.

I don't have one

I'm Italian, I have 5 middle names ( of patron saints and of my grandmothers ) but they're never used

I watched your video because I teach English in Brazil and being Brazilian myself, the definition of middle name is often confusing. We have at least 1 middle name which is from our maternal side. And some people have a second personal name (if I may say so) in addition to the family names, so of course it's hard to explain to an English native speaker all of these names hahaha. That's why I loved the video! thanks!!

my middle name is marie like so many other girls

0:57 What's up with that kids face

In my family, the naming scheme is as follows: First name (chosen by the parents), Middle name (usually the mother's maiden name) Last name (family name)

Very good video! I always wondered....

Picasso was a misogynist and child predator. I'm sure there are some examples of people with long names who werent trash.

After moving to the South (US), I discovered it's fairly common for people to go by two first names. And some of my friends have two middle names. One of those friends have her first son to middle names, but opted to name her second son after his father, making him the third generation beating the family name. I have a second cousin with the same first and last name, but he goes by Matt and I go by Matthew, so there's less reason for me to use my middle initial.

I'll never forget a friend I had, she has 5 names plus her parents surnames back then it blew my mind.

In some areas of England, it is a common tradition to give you firstborn son his mothers maiden name as a way of passing it on. This was especially used in families that wanted to show the link to the mothers family if they had a higher status, title, reputation or wealth. This was before double barreling was a thing. It was done with sons as they didn't lose their last name in marriage so could carry both maternal and paternal names all their lives.

My brother was named after his paternal grandfather--Claude Odom--and my grandmother's family--Anderson. He was named Claude Andrew. I loved my mother's thoughtfulness.

An informational RU-vid video in which big words are pronounced correctly-what?!? I’m a new subscriber!!

1:53 My dad's side of the family passes down the middle name "Pyemont" Not sure when this started, but it's the firstborn son who gets the name, who then passes it on to his firstborn son, and so on. So there's this line of firstborn sons with that middle name. My dad has it, and so does my eldest brother and so did my grandad!

She speaks very well! 🥰 great video