Why do you have a middle name?

Answer 1

A middle name is used to honor a friend of your parents, to remember a relative, to sustain use of an important personal name or surname in your family's history, to reference someone who was famous or important at the time of your birth, or to distinguish you from a relative with a similar personal name and surname. Some families routinely give their children more than one "middle" name, in the fashion of European nobility; while others give no middle names at all.

It can also be an identifier for those with relatively common first and last names. There are thousands of John Smiths, but fewer John Robert Smiths.

Despite their relatively long existence in Northern America, the phrase "middle name" was not recorded until 1835 in Harvardiana, a periodical of the time. Since 1905, "middle name" has also gained a figurative connotation meaning a notable or outstanding attribute of a person, as in the phrase "________ is my middle name."

Answer 2

Dating back to Greek mythological times humans and gods where given middle names to show the states under the church. Many would be given middle names based on what the priest believed was a correct meaning of this person for instance, Samuel was given to people whom the priest believe resembled higher spirituality and of holy presents, This tradition of middle names was taken away around the time of the fall of Greek Mythology, only to be brought back early in the 17th century by royal families, this was then a trend which has been contuniued through out the centuries as a family tradition with in those decenting from the anglo-saxon ancestory.