Meaning behind middle names...

Just looking for some input on how people feel about middle names. I know often times middle names are chosen to honour a family/friend. Is this really important to you? Or would you simply pick a middle name b/c you like it? I ask because my first daughter's middle name is after my grandmother. Then my second daughter's middle name is a bit more of a stretch but still honours a great grandmother and grandmother. I am feeling huge pressure to come up with another significant middle name for the third child but sometimes I find myself just simply loving how a particular name sounds in the middle place but it has no significance! Is this a deal breaker for you when choosing??

All names have significance. A name that pleases me has more significance than something that happened to be used by an ancestor. In any case, it isn't really the ancestor with the name you're honoring so much as the parent who chose that name for him/her. Name choices have been so limited and lacking in much thought in the past for many families, I think 'honour' names are overrated. I do like pulling from the family tree, but I have to go pretty far back to find the good ones (and the interesting people, for that matter).

Thanks, I feel like you. I would rather my child grow up with a name that my husband and I chose and loved. I think that is special for them to know how much thought we put into finding the perfect name. Rather than just chose a name b/c some deceased great aunt shared the name but we didn't necessarily love it. That's kind of how I came to my second daughter's middle. My great grandmother (who was dead looong before I came along) was named Lillian so I chose Lilidh is the gaelic form of Lily..like I said, kind of a stretch but loved the name. Thanks for sharing your input, has helped!

I wouldn't want to name my child after someone just for the sake of it. I mean, I have a grandmother with a rather peculiar and heavy name and I love her to bits, but I somehow doubt I would want to give a daughter of mine that name no matter how much I love my grandmother. You can just as well make family members and special people a part of your children's lives by telling them about them as you can my honouring these people in your children's middles. And I would not be able to live with giving my child a name that I deep down really didn't like. If I'll have any children (won't happen for a long, long time), they're gonna get names that their father and I love and that have a special meaning to us. I also put a lot of weight on historical, badass namesakes because I think that can be very important. At least I know I would be beyond thrilled if I had been named after some strong, kickass person

Just looking for some input on how people feel about middle names. I know often times middle names are chosen to honour a family/friend. Is this really important to you? Or would you simply pick a middle name b/c you like it? I ask because my first daughter's middle name is after my grandmother. Then my second daughter's middle name is a bit more of a stretch but still honours a great grandmother and grandmother. I am feeling huge pressure to come up with another significant middle name for the third child but sometimes I find myself just simply loving how a particular name sounds in the middle place but it has no significance! Is this a deal breaker for you when choosing??

As long as there is a story to the name (more than just "we liked it" or "we found it on the family tree" it has significance. I am assume you or your husband had relationships with the grandmothers honored and the stories about those grandmothers are part of the stories you tell your daughters about their names. My middle name is after one of my Dad's aunts and my mother's mother and I heard many stories regarding this aunt and my grandmother and understood why they were women my parents would like me to emulate.

But the story can be one about the name itself and why you like it and what significance it has for you. So, for example, if you were to use the middle name Hazel, the story might be "I love vintage names and nature names and Hazel allowed me to express both those loves in one name. The icing on the cake was that Hazel sounded so great with your name ...."