Know Thyself through YOUR NAME part II:
Back in Know Thyself Post #10, I asked whether you knew the origin, meaning, and impetus for your first name. Now, let’s talk about Middle Names.
The middle name is the portion of someone’s personal name that exists between someone’s ‘given name’ and their ‘surname/last name/family name’. This is often abbreviated to just an initial.
Sometimes a person is given a middle name to distinguish them from someone in their family with the same first name. Sometimes middle names are the mother’s maiden name and sometimes they are purposely left blank.
Sometimes middle names are the father or mother’s first name, and if the tradition continued and this child were to have a child the current baby’s first name would become the future baby’s middle name and so on and so on.
Did you know in some states you can just change your middle name on-line?!
Some people have chosen to be known by their middle name or an abbreviated version like: John F(Fitgerald) Kennedy, J(ohn) Edgar Hoover, and F(rancis) Scott (Key) Fitzgerald.
And apparently Spanish painters’ parents circa late 17th and early 18th centuries went a little crazy with the cheese whiz with Dali’s full name being: Salvador-Felipe-Jacinto-Dalí-y-Domenech, and Picasso’s full name being: Pablo-Diego -José-Francisco-de-Paula-Juan-Nepomuceno-María-de-los-Remedios-Cipriano-de-la-Santísima-Trinidad-Ruiz-y……….-Picasso.
Do you have a middle name? Do you know why that name was chosen if you do, or why no name was given if you don’t? Have you ever given a middle name? Why did you choose that name if you did, or why didn’t you choose a name if you didn’t?
Last Updated on 10/21/2025 by Death of Hypatia Inc.
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