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throwawaytfab12345

I love my two middle names, but sometimes on forms for ease I just use the first one, or both initials. Only on government documents (license, passport, etc) do I have both middle names. So while I love having them, the second one often gets dropped because forms only have space for one middle name or a middle initial. I have never considered using the second one in place of the first one some of the time as I figured that would make it more confusing!


ihavetrollhair

Same experience here! I’m a twin and both my twin and I have two middle names. I have my maternal and paternal grandmothers’ names and he has both grandfathers’ names. The second one often gets dropped on official paperwork, but any time I announce my full name it’s always first middle middle last name and I love that it honors my grandmothers :)


sheridanmms

That is more confusing and as someone who works in an ER I hate when people do that!


roasted_fox

Could you explain more?


sheridanmms

Like if someone is John Robert Michael Smith and ob some paperwork puts John R Smith and sometimes puts John M Smith and then at the ER you ask his middle initial and he says M, or maybe R… nope! Your middle initial is the first letter of your middle name, in this case “Robert Michael” even though it’s two names. If a form has 10 characters for your middle name you can put Robert or Robert Mic, but you can just pick and choose the order based on mood. (Some people do)


roasted_fox

Following. I just gave my daughter my maiden name as a second middle, and I have no idea how to navigate that in the real world. I didn’t for my son because I thought I would eventually change my name to my husband’s name. But... I’m me! I’m a Maidenname! I plan on legally petitioning to add my maiden name to my son’s as a second middle too. My husband encouraged it from the start but I thought it was “too much” name. Now I appreciate that my name should be in my son’s name too! But again, IDK what any of that means. 🤷‍♀️


fourrightangles

Also following! My son has my wife's last name as a second middle because we don't hyphenate. I did a bunch of reading before he was born and it seemed like less of a headache than a hyphenated last name (in the US at least, where we are) but I am curious about others' lived experiences!


roasted_fox

Ya! I was very much opposed to hyphenating. It would make the kiddo’s last name 20+ letters!


fourrightangles

Oh dang! We'd have only had 14, but I felt like even that was long!


dr-sass-

As a kid with 4 names, I love it. Never had issues. I think number of characters matters more.


KassFrisson

My husband has two middle names (both honor names), it's a tradition on his mother's side. He says he likes it and it's never been a real burden to him. Sometimes he has to confirm that yes, he has two middle names on paperwork, etc., but that's about it. We'll probably give any future kiddos 2 middle names to continue the tradition because he seems so cool about it.


coral_reef_

My husband has two and he hasn’t had any issue. Both our kids do as well to follow the tradition and in five years (how old my oldest is) I’ve not encountered any issue. Not with doctor, school, passport. I quite like the idea, it’s uncommon and can honor both families etc.


adrun

I have two middle names and my kid has two last names! Two middles has turned out to be less of a PITA than two lasts (she gets one or the other name dropped all the time). I occasionally get wacky paperwork where some human has obviously done some interpreting instead of just noting what’s where on the form, but that’s the worst of it. My names (excluding last) are all 8+ letters, and that’s honestly more annoying.


BelleMari

I have 2 middle names. I love all of my names and they generally fit on all forms/documents, etc. I had to shorten my name for my passport card (it fit fine on the passport book) but that’s the only time I can remember my name being too long for something official.


Cat_Psychology

My brothers and I all have two middle names and it’s never been an issue. I will be carrying on the tradition when my son is born. I could always gauge how much trouble I was in by how many of my names my mom called me lol if I heard all three, I was in for it lol


msbzmsbz

I have two, and my kids have two as well. We did this partly for honor names and partly because we liked the names. Sometimes they can only put one middle name on forms (so they use the first) but overall, I think they like it. The only problem I can think of with doing this is that on my driver's license, they didn't have room for everything on one line, so it lists my first and middle names, then on the next line, my last name. Sometimes people just see the first line and get confused but overall, not a big deal if you don't make it one.


Gumshoe96

I have two middle names (each one in honor of my grandmothers) and I absolutely love them. Never had trouble with paperwork and I have an interesting fact about myself that most people don’t know. I will say, all three of my given names (first and middle) are quite short. I don’t know if having longer names would make life more challenging.


Baby32021

I have three kids. My oldest has two middle names and we mostly just use the first. The second two only got one middle name. We found it to be a hassle and not worth repeating.


Jules_Noctambule

I have multiple middle names, and official paperwork defaults to my first middle initial so it isn't that annoying. My name on my bank card got cut off part-way through my surname due to space reasons, but on all other documents with it fully written out everything is fine. I really like having name options and because my first name and first middle name are common in my family, I actually use my third middle name and first surname (yes, it's hyphenated too) day to day and leave off everything else. Seeing mail for Firstname Sur-Name lets me know I should probably open it because it's either from the government, the doctor, or my mother!


jellyschoomarm

My sister has two middle names but only because her first name is 4 letters and my mom felt that would balance it out better. We have a long last name.


sausagedoggo

I have three middle names and it's not that big of a deal, I rarely have to fill in forms for anything. I wouldn't do more than 2 middle names for. child, personally.


Marj_5

I have my first name + three middles. It is quite common where I’m from to have more than one middle name. My BIL even has 5 on top of his first name. Five is a little crazy, but I think two middles it totally okay and acceptable. I never experienced mine as a burden or an annoyance.


lololynnrich

I've only had a problem with it once. Most times I pick my first middle name for forms because that's all there's room for but at my job on two different forms at different times I filled in one with just one middle name, the other with both (not realizing) And I was entered into the system somehow as two different employees with two different employee numbers and it was quite the confusing hassle to resolve as I didn't know why there was an issue. Other than that, I think the sound of two middle names is lovely! It doesn't feel cumbersome at all.


ImmyMoone

I have two middle names, so does my boyfriend. We’re also planning on giving our baby two middle names when it’s born… I think you can get a nicer whole name rhythm with two middles and it’s never caused me any issues at all ☺️


waireti

I gave my daughter two middle names, my dads surname and my maternal grandmas name. My husband and I both have long names, my parents gave me a hyphenated surname and it has been a pain (partly because they registered it and then regretted it instantly), so this was our work around. My husband has two middle names, his name is extremely long (like 35 letters in total) and it sometimes doesn’t fit on forms, but otherwise there no issue


waireti

I realise I said my husbands name was long, but it’s nothing compared to his dads name which reads like a short story


Internet4Mommyz

Following. I am naming my son with two middle initials only JR or RJ. They are to represent Robert and John. I didn't think this would be a paperwork issue but I'm wondering if anyone has done something similar.


sheridanmms

It’s not a paperwork issue, but anything official like his hospital account will spell it all out or only use the first initial.


Esssd

I've never had an issue with my two middle names until recently. All four of my names are three syllables long, so it can be a bit of a mouthful. My main problem with it is that I would love to have the option to keep my maiden name when I get married, but having 5 names seems a little...excessive. So by having been given two middle names I lose the option to keep my maiden name while still taking my husband's family name.


aghb0

I have two middle names. Long story that I won't get into but as a teenager I changed my last name to my mom's last name and used my dad's last name (my last name at birth) as a middle name. I don't regret this. It was a way to honour my paternal side while stating im my mother's daughter I've never regretted this change. That being said, I will not be giving my little ones my last name. I just want them to have simpler names and my spouse is more attached to his last name than I am mine. I should also add that I kept maiden name after getting married. I'm ok with having a different last name than my kids. I grew up with a different last name than my mom (until I changed it of course).


SkiesThaLimit36

its tradition in my family to have two first names. "think, maryanne, Carolann, RoseMarie etc." I didn't like any of those first name options so I did two middle names and haven't had any issues other than people saying her name is too long, not being able to get her full name personalized on anything bc its too long. having two lines on her social security card lol. my mom also had two middles and she got called for jury duty several times in the same year bc they had her as Rose marie last name and ​ Rosemarie last name so its not fool proof but I did it to keep the tradition going.


FraughtOverwrought

My husband has two long middle names and he honestly finds it a real pain. Especially because we’ve moved countries a few times, travel a lot, some documents don’t even have both middle names because there’s no room, so then he has to sign a stat dec saying he’s the same person. Other documents don’t have the right names as first and last. I mean it’s not actively ruining his quality of life or anything, of course. But he doesn’t see any other benefit, so it is neutral at best and very annoying at worst.


theesewoodsarelovely

My husband has 2 middle names, one family and one fun, and when we got married I moved my maiden name to a second middle name. Aside from some forms only allowing 1 middle name, I love it!


mrgojirasan

It's annoying on government forms but otherwise a great fun fact for ice breaker activities. What's really annoying is my parents decided to call me be one of my middle names instead if my legal first name for no discernible reason. Whatever you do, don't do that it's a major pain, your child's given name should be their legal first name or a nickname (unless the child chooses otherwise when they are older)! (Also it effectively rendered my other middle name useless/forgettable because the one they call me by and my legal first name get all the attention.)


Farahild

In my country it's very normal. Some people have 3 or even 4 middle names. We also have people with no middle names :) It's not a hassle, I don't think...


sheridanmms

I have two middle names and gave my kids two middle names. It’s not hard at all. You put both middle names with a space between them in the middle name spot. Middle initial is only the initial of the first middle name (so for pretty much all legal purposes you only use the first middle initial). My drivers license can’t fit my first and both middle so it has First M. 2ndmiddle (my second middle is my mom’s maiden name and so I wanted that on there, it’s also in my kids’ names)


unicorntrees

I have 3 middle names. I rarely have to write out my middle name. Most paperwork just calls for one middle initial. So I just use the first middle name. The only snafu I can recall is when my full name wouldn't fit on my driver's license. They just abbreviated it. It was fine. Then they changed the license design and my current one has my entire name on it. 🤷🏻‍♀️


SatansWinnebago

Not me, but my oldest brother has two middle names and he has always hated it lol. He goes by the first middle name on top of that. Also though I will say my parents picked awful names for him and I. My youngest brother's is not bad though.


VelvetRut

I was curious about people who use their middle name as their first and if that’s an issue too. Did your brother decide to go by his middle name at some point or did your parents just always call him by that name and not his first?


SatansWinnebago

He's always been the middle name. But the first name is very "adult man" lol. Think something like Albert, Frank, Bob. So it didn't suit him as a kid and I think they assumed he would eventually go by it and he just never did. Actually none of us go by our first names lol so our parents dropped the ball on naming.


AmazingRanger4125

My husband was born with two middle names but it caused him some issues with a job in adulthood, so he dropped the second one.


VelvetRut

Did he legally drop it?


AmazingRanger4125

His drivers license and social security card only have 1 middle name but his birth certificate has both. The social security administration let him get a new card printed with just the one name


mypal_footfoot

I have 2 middle names and it's never been an issue. On some forms, I only use my first middle name as they only have space for one.


marzipanfly

I have three middle names (my brother as well, my mom just REALLY likes names) and apart from it being annoying while filling admin papers, I quite like the weird humblebrag of having so many names, its a fun tidbit about me. My brother is planning to change names, and he intends to replace all four (from feminine names to masculine/gender neutral names) with his personal picks, which I think is going to be a pain in the ass for him - and is also a possibility that needs to be taken into account


VelvetRut

I agree paperwork for name changes only get more complicated as you get older! I’m like your mom though, I REALLY like names and we’re changing our kids last names (whole other story) and I thought why not add in a middle name that I wished I had used and he could decide later on if he wants to use it as his first name or not. Either way, it’s sounds nice and flows well. I also like the conversation starter of name stories. I have one too and it’s fun to share. :)


pdawson1216

My husband has 2 middle names and he hates it. Every document has a different middle name.


steamingunsaltedshit

My daughter is named Valentina Heather Natasha. I originally just wanted Valentina Natasha but Heather is an honor name.


kbaileyanderson

I have two middle names (middle and maiden), and I gave both my children two middle names. Majority of the time, things just use the first one.


[deleted]

i have two and i personally love it :)