Middile name in a person's name

[birdie]

In a person's English name, there are first, middle, and last names, as you all know. I'd like to know about middle name. Who gets to have a middle name? How do they choose thier middle names? I know Ms. Clinton chose her maiden last name middle name. Thanx.

[Quizmonster]

Not all people have middle names and those who do were generally given them at birth by their parents. Such a name is often one which commemorates someone else...perhaps a grandfather or a hero/star of some sort. It has even been known for football fanatic fathers to give a son ALL the names of the players in his favourite team! Basically, it doesn't really mean very much in Britain, whereas Arabic male children, for example, are invariably given their father's and grandfather's names as part of their own. Abdullah Ibrahim Rashid al Ghani, for instance, would be a child whose own name is Abdullah, whose father's name is/was Ibrahim and whose grandfather's name is/was Rashid. The al Ghani part is the family/tribe name. So, middle names DO matter in some parts of the world.

[jenstar]

Of course, there's nothing to stop you adopting a middle name if you want one. John Winston Lennon added an "Ono" to his name after marrying Yoko, "Steptoe And Son" actor Harry Corbett added an H (nothing more) to distinguish himself from the creator of "Sooty", and the radio producer Dennis Main Wilson (of "Hancock's Half Hour" fame, among other things) was just plain Dennis Wilson until he discovered that there was another person of the same name working in the same department, so he added an extra name just to make it clear that he was the "Main" Wilson!

[Kit]

Married American women do seem to keep their maiden name as their middle name - hence Courtney Cox has now become Courtney Cox Arquette.

[yankeepeg]

As a married, American woman I must respectfully disagree with Kit. Most American women do NOT use their maiden names as a middle name. Those who do almost always fall into one of three categories, they (1) were not given a middle name at birth, (2) are FAMOUS under their maiden name [Courtney COX Arquette, Elizabeth TAYLOR Burton, etc.] which gives them "bankability", (3) have achieved some measure of success in their chosen field under their maiden name [advanced degree, publication, etc.]. The vast majority of married American women continue to use their birth-given middle name after marriage.

[Kit]

Apologies, yankeepeg, I am a mere Brit whose firsthand experience of the US begins and ends at Disneyworld (however, do you think the weasel phrase, "seem to" covers my butt?!) :)

[yankeepeg]

Hey, Kit! I LOVE weasel-words (I use them frequently at the office to cover my butt!). Having been to DisneyWorld, you are one up on me! What pathetic little I know about Britain is gleaned from movies, literature and Brit Coms [British situation comedy tv shows]. Maybe I'll get there one of these days...I hope so! YankeePeg

[rekstout]

I am half-Chinese and my middle names (I have two) were decided by a buddhist priest on the basis of astrological information at the time of my birth.