middle name

English

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

First recorded from Harvardiana in 1835.

Noun

middle name (plural middle names)

1. A name between the first given name and the family name or surname; a second or subsequent given name.

   I go by David but it's my middle name; my full name is William David Mason.

   María is a common middle name in Spanish, as in José María García.

3. (figuratively) A trait, activity, or action closely associated with or aptly describing a person.

   Think twice about playing for cash because "Poker" is her middle name.

   I won't tell anyone. "Discretion" is my middle name.

   • 1935, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night:

     Oddly enough, it had never yet occurred to her to wonder what other women made of Peter, or he of them. This must argue either very great confidence or very great indifference on her part; for, when one came to think of it, eligibility was his middle name.

   • 1985, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Back to the Future:

     Re-elect Mayor Goldie Wilson! Progress is his middle name!

Derived terms

• danger is one's middle name
• is my middle name
• middle-nameless
• NMN

Translations

name between given name and surname

• Catalan: segon prenom m, nom del mig m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中間名字 / 中间名字 (zhōngjiān míngzi)

• Czech: prostřední jméno n, druhé jméno n
• Faroese: millumnavn n
• Finnish: toinen nimi, välinimi
• French: deuxième prénom m, patronyme (fr) m (patronymic)
• Georgian: მეორე სახელი (meore saxeli)
• German: zweiter Vorname m, Zwischenname (de) m, Zweitname m, Mittelname m
• Icelandic: millinafn (is) n
• Irish: lárainm m, dara hainm m
• Japanese: ミドルネーム (ja) (midoru nēmu)
• Korean: 미들네임 (mideulleim)
• Macedonian: сре́дно и́ме n (srédno íme)
• Polish: drugie imię n
• Portuguese: nome do meio (pt) m
• Russian: второ́е и́мя n (vtoróje ímja), сре́днее и́мя n (srédneje ímja) (not used in Russia, patronymics are used instead, foreign context), о́тчество (ru) n (ótčestvo) (patronymic)
• Slovak: druhé meno n
• Spanish: segundo nombre m
• Swedish: andranamn (sv) n
• Tagalog: gitnang pangalan, gitnang apelyido
• Vietnamese: tên đệm, tên lót

figuratively a trait, activity, or action closely associated with or aptly describing a person

• Finnish: toinen nimi
• Polish: drugie imię n
• Spanish: apellido (es) m, segundo nombre m, apodo (es) m

Etymology 2

Historically in the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines, the Spanish naming customs traditionally displayed the full name as:

first name +‎ second name +‎ father's surname +‎ Spanish y (“and”) +‎ mother's surname

During the US colonial era of the Philippines, the US naming custom took effect where the mother's maiden name is used as a middle +‎ name, which displayed the full name as:

first name +‎ second name +‎ middle name (“mother's surname before marriage”) +‎ last name (“father's surname”)

Noun

middle name (plural middle names)

1. (Philippines) One's mother's maiden name.

   Juan Rico Martinez dela Cruz III is my full name, where Martinez is my middle name, but people just call me "JR".

   Maria Clara Teresita Reyes dela Cruz is my full name, where Reyes is my middle name, but you can call me Tessie or Tess.

Usage notes

• In the Philippines, this is often abbreviated known as a middle initial and only used in reference to one's complete legal full name, since people normally use a shortform full name composing only at least one of their primary given names (usually their first name) together with their last name (father's surname).

  My full name is Ma. Clara Teresita R. dela Cruz, but I usually just write Tess dela Cruz.

See also

• personal name
• first name
• last name