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Archivesdidn't answer my question
in reply to a message by ADT
it just says how people in different parts of the world (and at different times in history) picked out the mn... it doesn't say how they ORIGINATED...
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I'm sorry dear. Please skip the caps next time and try to be nice.
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This message was edited 5/3/2006, 8:12 PM
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You're right, that's a crappy article and I'm sure ADT wouldn't have posted it if she'd read it through. It's not up to Wikipedia's normal standards.
There isn't much information available on the use of middle names. They don't show up in official documents, diaries, etc, anywhere near as often as first and last names so it's hard to gain a picture of what their usage was like.
Essentially, middle names were developed so that the parents' name could be passed down, or a common first name used, while still allowing the child to be distinguished. Thus, in a society where half of the boys would be named John, you could distinguish your own John by naming him John Thomas instead. Or, you could pass on your own name, Mary, but your daughter Mary Elizabeth would have a different name to go by.
I found this on www.firmament.com:
"Middle names weren't used until the 15th Century when a second "first" name was used as a status symbol by German nobility. Many years passed before this practice became widespread, and in the United States, did not become popular until after the Revolutionary War, when the fashion was to use the mother's maiden name."
However, it's not referenced so I can't be sure where the information has been drawn from. Unfortunately, that exact same paragraph appears on about half a dozen other sites, which makes me think that they have all copied from each other or from some original printed source.
I think that all one can really say - without actually going to the *library* and doing some *research*, is that middle names in English-speaking countries have become common sometime in the last 500 years, and that they originated for distinction and honouring purposes.
*shrugs*
♦ Chrisell ♦
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
There isn't much information available on the use of middle names. They don't show up in official documents, diaries, etc, anywhere near as often as first and last names so it's hard to gain a picture of what their usage was like.
Essentially, middle names were developed so that the parents' name could be passed down, or a common first name used, while still allowing the child to be distinguished. Thus, in a society where half of the boys would be named John, you could distinguish your own John by naming him John Thomas instead. Or, you could pass on your own name, Mary, but your daughter Mary Elizabeth would have a different name to go by.
I found this on www.firmament.com:
"Middle names weren't used until the 15th Century when a second "first" name was used as a status symbol by German nobility. Many years passed before this practice became widespread, and in the United States, did not become popular until after the Revolutionary War, when the fashion was to use the mother's maiden name."
However, it's not referenced so I can't be sure where the information has been drawn from. Unfortunately, that exact same paragraph appears on about half a dozen other sites, which makes me think that they have all copied from each other or from some original printed source.
I think that all one can really say - without actually going to the *library* and doing some *research*, is that middle names in English-speaking countries have become common sometime in the last 500 years, and that they originated for distinction and honouring purposes.
*shrugs*
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
This message was edited 5/3/2006, 7:50 PM
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Thanks! for two things
(1) I understand the whole Caps thing being seen as rude, but I don't mean it like that. Most of the time, it's just to put enphasis (spelling) on that word. I forget that it is looked at as "yelling" online! I am sorry for doing that, I'm sure I'll still do it, I just have to be careful. But you were right, she didn't answer my question and then tryed to put it back on me!
(2) You did, however, answer my question. Thank you very much, I was only interested b/c I am interested in History in general and wanted to know where and why this "tradition" started!
Again, Thanks!
(1) I understand the whole Caps thing being seen as rude, but I don't mean it like that. Most of the time, it's just to put enphasis (spelling) on that word. I forget that it is looked at as "yelling" online! I am sorry for doing that, I'm sure I'll still do it, I just have to be careful. But you were right, she didn't answer my question and then tryed to put it back on me!
(2) You did, however, answer my question. Thank you very much, I was only interested b/c I am interested in History in general and wanted to know where and why this "tradition" started!
Again, Thanks!
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Seems like a good explanation to me.
I'm not quite sure I agree that most middle names in the USA were originally the maiden name of the mother, however. It seems to me to be a bit more complicated than that. The first US President to have a middle name, John Quincy Adams, was given the maiden surname of his maternal grandmother as his middle name (his mother's maiden name was Smith). A lot of the examples of early middle names for boys are when the boy was being named after a particular person, either a national political figure or a family friend, and the middle name was the namesake's surname. John Quincy Adams himself had a son named George Washington Adams, for example. I think the impetus for that was to clearly designate that Washington was the person being honored instead of some other George. Often in the early days when the son's middle name is the mother's maiden name, I think it's because the child was being named quite specifically after the mother's father or brother, and it was only gradually that the idea of using the mother's maiden name as a sort of "generic" middle name option developed.
I'm not quite sure I agree that most middle names in the USA were originally the maiden name of the mother, however. It seems to me to be a bit more complicated than that. The first US President to have a middle name, John Quincy Adams, was given the maiden surname of his maternal grandmother as his middle name (his mother's maiden name was Smith). A lot of the examples of early middle names for boys are when the boy was being named after a particular person, either a national political figure or a family friend, and the middle name was the namesake's surname. John Quincy Adams himself had a son named George Washington Adams, for example. I think the impetus for that was to clearly designate that Washington was the person being honored instead of some other George. Often in the early days when the son's middle name is the mother's maiden name, I think it's because the child was being named quite specifically after the mother's father or brother, and it was only gradually that the idea of using the mother's maiden name as a sort of "generic" middle name option developed.
This message was edited 5/4/2006, 9:33 AM
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