Hellobee Boards

My friend is Dominican and he has a middle name as well.

My father is of Greek decent and both he and his sister have middle names. But one of my best friends is from Poland and she doesn't. It must just vary around the world. I know the English do middle names (often times multiple middle names).

When I lived in england ALL my English friends had middle names. My husband is west african and they all have middle names too, so its definitely not just a US thing

no middle names in korea.

@blushink: Interesting on the Mary+God Mother name. That makes me think of all of my Mom's friends who are named Mary Louise, Mary Jane, Mary Elizabeth, Mary Regina - and go by those names.

I don't know about elsewhere but I know my husband and I both have middles.

I don't have a middle name! I have a traditional Korean first name. And there are no middle names in Korea :)... My mom said she had a nickname (which was altogether different from her legal name), but no such thing as a middle name in Korea.

Most of my Korean friends who were born in the states have English first names and their Korean names are their middle names.

I am from Alberta, and the only one I know without a middle name is my Mom (my grandparents couldn't think of anything so just left it out).

My English husband has a middle name, but neither of his parents did. My husband says his dad used to joke that it was because their parents couldn't afford them.
When we went to register Linus (you have to go downtown to register births and get the birth certificate) we told the registrar Linus' name (first, middle, last) and she specifically asked if we wanted any additional middle names, which I thought was strange.

i don't use mine--but i work in a Vietnamese area and they ALL have middle names

I'n Australian. Most people have middle names here. I know it is much the same in New Zealand and Britain.

Yep all middle names in Ireland too, but it's not like you'd ever know your friends middle names, we don't use them. I had a friend in college called Maryrose and a lot of lecturers used to assume the Rose bit was her middle name and just call her Mary and it drove her nuts. Most of us get an additional name at confirmation too, and that's definitely ornamental rather than used.

Everyone I know in the UK has a middle name, and I think it's common in France too.

My European husband and all of his sibs have just a first name. My European parents also have just one name, as do I, but my 2 younger brothers have middle names. I think it's more of a modern trend in Europe now to give kids a middle and first, his sibs that have kids have given first/middle, as have we.

Im Brazilian and some people put middle names in their kids, and although it happens a lot, its not the "right" thing. Like when you need to fill up a register you dont have the spaces for "name" "middle name" and "last name". You just have "name" and "last name" (that are usually two).
We dont even call it "middle name", we call "second name". My dad has a middle name but in his Brazilian passport its wrote: (example)
Name: George James
Surname: White Smith

I notice that in Brazil generally people with more age are the ones with middle names, cause the majority of old portuguese and spanish descendants i know have middle names.

Nowadays some parents make up combos like in the us, but a lot of people think its tashy. When you discover a friend has a horrid middle name (it's usually bad combos) you make fun of them (Brazilians make fun of everything, people dont feel offended by these jokes), even the middle named person bullies him/herself like "why my mother did that to me?" And even make competitions of the "worst middle name" (at least my friends with middle name always do that)

But there are some acceptable combos which are the classical ones, usually with Maria and Ana for girls and Jose, João and maybe Luis for boys. You dont think "i like the name Joao, let me see another name i like or a family name to go with it" like in the usa, no, it works as one thing "i like Joao Pedro".

The interesting thing is that if a Brazilian have a middle name you will probably know it, the moms call them by the whole name, you will never see a João Pedro be called just by João, everybody calls him João Pedro. It happens mainly with the classical ones because as i have said they are seem as just one thing, a whole name. But even when they have the most weird combination of names they use it, my fathers have his middle name on facebook and maybe 80% of people i know that have middle name use them on facebook, they feel like its just their name as their first name, if you have it, why dont use it? Haha. I love these cultural differences.

Sorry for any grammatical error i may have committed

I was about to respond to this but realized I already did One important aspect I'd forgotten to mention about Filipino names is that we often have our mother's maiden name as part of our middle name. Although I don't technically have a middle name, I carry my mother's maiden name and so does my brother.

It would look like this: First name, middle name, mother's maiden name, last name. Most people don't actually go by their whole name, but it's in all the official docs.

Canadian (from Ontario) and everybody I know has middle names. They don't really get used, though.

@ElbieKay: That's weird, I did exactly what you're describing easily with just marriage paperwork, it was not an issue.

@ElbieKay: Nope, I'm in Florida.

Chinese hear (Cantonese) and I definitely do not have a middle name. When I became a citizen here I made my Chinese name into my middle name that I never use

But both girls have middle names now!