In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between the person's first given name and their surname. A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial.
A person may be given a middle name regardless of whether it is necessary to distinguish them from other people with the same given name and surname. In 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.
Usage in various languages
English
Among royalty and aristocracy, middle names have been used since 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 term middle name was not recorded until 1835, in the periodical Harvardiana.
Not every name that stands as the middle word in a three-name string is a middle name. Major classes of this theme are as follows: When part of a two-word given name: for example, Mary Anne and Jo Anne. When part of a two-word surname, that is, a compound surname: for example, David Lloyd George or Henry Bence Jones, whose surnames are open compounds (that is, Bence is not his middle name; Bence Jones is his compound surname). A maiden name expressed: for example, Hillary Clinton (nee Rodham) is sometimes known as Hillary Rodham Clinton. A patronymic in any of various Slavic languages, including Russian and Bulgarian, such as Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, is not normally considered a middle name. Russian language and culture has certain norms for when someone is to be called by their given name plus patronymic versus a title plus the surname (for example, Nikita Sergeyevich versus Mr. Khrushchev). The distinction is similar to the T–V distinction. See also eastern Slavic naming customs. Traditional Québécois names: Traditionally, Roman Catholic Québécois, Franco-Ontarian, and Franco-Manitoban children were given three names, the first being Joseph or Marie, the second the godfather's or godmother's name, and the third the name chosen by the parents for the child. Examples include Jean Chrétien (Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien) and Gabrielle Roy (Marie Rose Emma Gabrielle Roy). Some children (especially those with English mothers) were given extra names that could serve as middle names in the anglophone tradition; for example, Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau). These traditions became less common after the Quiet Revolution.
In the U.S., the middle name is often abbreviated to the middle initial (e.g. Mary Lee Bianchi becomes Mary L. Bianchi). This is usually standard for signatures or omitted entirely in everyday use (e.g. just Mary Bianchi). An individual may have more than one 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.
In countries that primarily speak English—such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom—the forename of a relative is sometimes used as one's middle name to honor familial heritage. Typical examples are a father named John William Smith whose son is named Thomas John Smith or a grandmother named Mary Grace Tilley whose granddaughter is named Ashley Mary Smith. In many cases in the United States, however, a person's middle name does not derive from relatives, but is used instead to honor close family friends or notable public figures. A rare case of an individual being given only an initial as a middle name, with the initial not explicitly standing for anything, was Harry S. Truman. (He once told reporters—apparently at odds with his own practice—that the S should thus not be followed by period.) Other people with single-letter middle names include Robert B. Hollander Jr. and Mark M Davis.
More than two given names are fairly common. In Britain, they are traditionally more common among the upper and middle classes.