*MY MIDDLE NAME*
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(in several cultures, people’s names usually include 1 or more names)
these names can be in addition to the number that are usually considered adequate to identify someone)
(in a number of ‘cultures’ where a given name is expected to precede the surname, additional names are likely to be placed after the given name and before the surname, and thus called “middle names”)
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(in ‘english-speaking american culture’, that term is often applied (arguably mistakenly) to names occupying that position even if the bearer would insist that that name is being mistakenly called a “middle name”, and is actually (to mention several types of common cases) –>
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(part of a 2-word ‘given name’)
(e.g. ‘mary anne’)
(‘mary anne clarke’)
(“joe bob briggs”)
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a ‘maiden name’
(e.g. ‘hillary rodham clinton’)
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a ‘patronymic’
(e.g. ‘sergeyevich’)
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a ‘baptismal name’
(e.g. “christopher” invoking ‘saint christopher’)
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(a ‘maternal surname’)
(such as in names of ‘filipinos’, ‘portuguese’, and ‘brazilians’))
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(in the ‘united states’, such names are specifically referred to as middle names; in most other ‘countries’, as far as they are given names and not, for example, ‘patronymics’, they would simply be regarded as 2nd, 3rd etc. ‘given names’)
(in the ‘united states’, the “middle name” is often abbreviated to the middle initial (e.g. ‘mary lee bianchi’ becomes ‘mary l. bianchi’, which is usually ‘standard’ for signatures or omitted entirely in everyday use (e.g. just ‘mary bianchi’))
(an ‘individual’ may have more than 1 middle name)
(….or none!)
(in the ‘united kingdom’ (for comparison) she would usually be referred to as either ‘mary bianchi’, ‘m. l. bianchi’ or ‘mary lee bianchi’, or she may choose ‘lee bianchi’, and informally there may be familiar shortenings)
(it is debatable how long multiple ‘given names’ have existed in ‘english-speaking countries’, but it is certain that among ‘royalty’ and ‘aristocracy’ the practice existed by the ‘late 17th century’ (and possibly earlier), as exemplified in the name of the stuart pretender “james francis edward stuart” (‘1688’ – ‘1766’))
(despite their relatively long existence in ‘north america’, the phrase “middle name” was not recorded until ‘1835’, in the periodical ‘harvardiana’)
(the use of ‘multiple middle names’ has been somewhat impeded recently by the increased use of ‘computer databases’ that occasionally allow for only a ‘single middle name’ or more commonly a ‘middle initial’ in storing ‘personal records’, effectively preventing people with ‘multiple middle names’ from being listed in such ‘databases’ under their ‘full name’)
(aka “woes of the ‘nominally greedy’)
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(this is worsened by ‘longer compound names’)
(like ‘maría del pilar pereyra’ or ‘maría de las nieves garcía’)
(the abbreviation “N.M.N.” (aka ‘no middle name’) or “N.M.I.” (aka ‘no middle initial’), with or without ‘periods’, is sometimes used in formal documents in the ‘united states’, where a middle initial or name is expected but the person does not have one)
(the ‘middle name’ can also be a ‘maiden name’)
(since ‘1905’, “middle name” has also developed a ‘figurative usage’ meaning a ‘notable’ or ‘outstanding’ attribute of a person, as in the phrase “‘discretion’ is my middle name”)
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