Why Do We Have Middle Names?
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
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We understand why we have first names and how our surnames tie us to our family heritage, but what's the deal with middle names? What's the purpose of a middle name and when did different cultures start using them?
Written and Hosted by: Danielle Bainbridge
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios
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Origin of Everything is a show about the undertold histories and cultural dialogues that make up our collective story. From the food we eat, to the trivia and fun facts we can’t seem to get out of our heads, to the social issues we can’t stop debating, everything around us has a history. Origin of Everything is here to explore it all. We like to think that no topic is too small or too challenging to get started
Works Cited:
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-212...
www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/05...
mentalfloss.com/article/25034/...
mentalfloss.com/article/58440/...
time.com/4451977/history-of-mi...
people.howstuffworks.com/why-...
www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-...
www.bbc.com/news/world-africa...
blog.tesol.org/7-naming-custom...
www.bbc.com/news/world-africa...
lisahayden.com/lch/Russian%20N...
www.cnn.com/2013/05/01/world/...
www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/fa...
The Means of Naming: A Social History Stephen Wilson
van Tilburg W. A. P. and Igou E. R. (2014), The impact of middle names: Middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance, European Journal of Social Psychology, 44, pages 400-411. DOI:10.1002/ejsp.2026
Middle names are also used to tell when your parents are really really mad at you.
Carlito, what di they do to you.
Oh yeah. If I heard my dad say my middle name I knew I’d done something wrong.
Charles May SARAH AAAAANNNNN!!!! *Shutters in Repressed childhood memories...*
Haha I told my kids this is the only reason they have middle names
Imagine how that was for Picasso growing up!
We have a special tradition in our family where the first born daughters Middle name is her mothers first name. It’s very special for us and goes back several generations. So example… Rachael Victoria. My mother is Victoria Jean. Her mother is Jean Emily. And my great grandmother is Emily Rose and so on and so on. If I had a daughter her middle name would be (first name) Rachael. It’s something special that we Made up for ourselves and is merely ornamental But still holds a special place in our hearts.
That is so cool! I love that tradition of linking the generations together through names!
Are you Greek?
Kimberly Clark thank you!
Tina Thompson hi! No I’m not.
So do you and your siblings all have your mother name
In Mexico you tend to have four names that usually go:
Personal Name + 2nd Personal Name + Father's Surname + Mother's Surname
For example my name is Carmen Maria Randolph Fajardo
The shortened version for introductions is typically just your personal name and your father's surname. Plus you also have people with compound personal names.
If you have a child which surname would they get from you? The one from your father's side or your mother's?
@@linkiebrown8477 Commonly it's from the father's side. In my case, for example, I have my dad's surname (Salim) first, but let's say my husband is a Johnson. If we have a child, the order would be Name Middle-Name Johnson Salim, since the dad's surname goes first. Some exceptions exist, but usually it's like this.
Btw I'm not Mexican, but this applies to most Latin American countries
@@linkiebrown8477 it's always the father's surname. I don't have a middle name but have both my parents surname but in the USA they don't understand that so they only go by by you're first name and father's surname. The DMV messed that up when I first went to get an ID the most important documents had my 3 names but my other documents from school would only show 2. It's more of a sentimental thing, it's nice to also have the mother's surname it's like saying the child (your name) of (father's surname & mother's surname).
But sometimes you can have all of your parents last names, for example my name is Ana Luiza de Carvalho Noleto Silva Goldstein, so is, my first name + my second name + my maternal grandmother’s last name + my maternal grandfather’s last name + my paternal grandmother’s last name + my paternal grandfather’s last name, so your lineage isn’t based on your parents but on your grandparents
In Uruguay we have a first and second last name. It used to be [Names] [Father's first last name] [Mother's first last name]. Since same sex marriage was approved, you get to choose the order of last names, as long as all the children from the same couple have the same last names in the same order.
0:15 yes:to know when your mom is pissed off at you
So true, I don't think my full name has ever been used outside of the context of my mom being pissed off at me.
Nicknames -- how do they work?! .. you don't need to make it official to call your child by different names for different situations. (I have a single 4-syllable personal name, the "we are currently unhappy with you"-name I was called had 6 syllables, including a different surname 🤣
@@chrisserrific Same here!
Yep i agree. Nothing quite as terrifying as when you hear both first and last names.
So true. The only time my parents said my full name is when I was in trouble.
Those “bookshelves” are the best pun ever. Good job set designers.
I know I love those. I wonder if they're custom of of you can by them somewhere.
I guess I missed it :S
What is the pun?
@@mm7846 shelves that are literally made of books. Hence bookshelves☺️😅
Thanks! It went right over my head! I was studying those shelves trying to find the pun 🤣
I don't have a middle name and people often freak out when I tell then :o
My mother doesn't either. I always thought that was weird, especially since she gave me two middle names.
@Asiboe You're an unholy abomination, incapable of human empathy and undeserving of love or the comfort that can only be bestowed upon you by your fellow man. Your soul is impure and sullied, and you must purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. JK :)
Voz -Lame...😒
@@voz3704 Mood
George Washington didn't.
I literally just asked this question at lunch and no one knew the answer. Man, you guys make me feel so smart after watching your videos!
this is exactly why i love watching these :)
I'm Romanian and it's common practice to give children multiple first names (we call them prenames). It's usually done to pay homage to some significant relative or for religious reasons (one name can be a saint's name given to protect the child). Most of the time, people have a name their mother chose and a name their father chose, or a name the couple chose together and a name that relatives chose (grandparents, uncles/aunts, godparents). Also, sometimes there's a hyphen added between the two prenames to signify that they're equally important. However, most people only go by their first prename (first first name) because they rarely like both of them. Even parents only call the child by the first prename, but the other one is also used in every legal document. Unless the full name is written, legal documents aren't valid. In these instances, the hyphen matters A LOT. I've had collegues struggle with their school documents because of a misplaced hyphen.
Also, we sign all legal documents with our family name (last name) first, followed by the prenames in the order from the birth certificate. However, in informal settings, we present ourselves starting with our prefered prename.
The middle initial is a whole other story. Some legal documents use the father's first name initials between the last and first name of the child for a more detailed identification.
Let's take this example: a child named Popescu I. Maria-Ioana, Popescu Ion's child. Popescu is her last name (family name), I. is her father's first name initial and Maria-Ioana are her prenames. She would most likely go by Maria, since it's the first prename.
I'm really curious about the origin of these practices in my country, I haven't really thought about this until now. Thank you for the video 🙌🏻
I'm Romanian too and i've always complained to my parents for giving me 3 prenames (2 middle names + the first name). My name is Ioana-Silvia-Mihaela (mereu uit cratima pe acte). Ioana is the name my mother wanted, Silvia is the name my father wanted and Mihaela is the name everyone else thought i should get because i was born around Saint Michael's day. Everyone just calls me Ioana and it's a pain in the ass because it's one of the most common names in Romania...
In Latvia we sometimes get two surnames which can happen by marriage usually. In stead of changing the surname to your spouse's you get to have both. Only one first name though, which is why we just call it "name". There are some instances of middle names but that's extremely rare. Under legal circumstances, it is common to say the surname first then first names. In casual circumstances we sometimes just name the family you belong to and say your name, something like -- if your surname is Ciociou, your family would be known as the Ciocious, and you'd be called as Ciocious' Anda. Btw Anda is a Latvian name too.
@@UndeadCrabstick I didn't know Anda is used in Latvia as well. In Romania is quite rare, it surely came from another country, probably from the north-northeast. I rarely find someone with the same name as me and people often mispronounce it as Ada or Ana (shocking, since it's so short and straightforward already). Thanks for the info 😊
some people (especially girls as far as i know?) here in belgium have a double hyphen name (i.e. marie-louise or anne-sophie) and i've never understood why tbh
I have names in 4 different languages, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cantonese, and I made my own English name in court cause I'm tired of people butchering my beautiful name. But guess what, people still don't know how to pronounce my white name, how hard is it to say Hailey?
Seriously, I agree with you. Some people make things more difficult than is necessary. All it is is "hail, as in hail a cab" with ey at the end. Maybe ppl don't get that either
@@rachelgarber1423 Yeah, but that isn't how you pronounce Hailey!
Haha I shortened first my name to three letters for people to pronounce and people to still butcher that. 😂🤣🙃 Is that David So in your pfp? 🙌🏼
they can't sue you if they can't name you. 👀
I have a friend called Alyssa and most of her teachers can’t get her name right on the register like is it that hard to see the letters to pronounce. I thought teachers were smart 😂
Most teachers keep pronouncing it like Aleesa or Aliza when it’s literally Al i ssa
I was named by Filipino naming conventions, so my second name is part of my legal first name and my middle name is my mother's maiden name. Because of that, I always write my second name immediately after my first. It caused loads of problems when I was in elementary school. "Stop writing your middle name." "It's not my middle name. It's my second name."
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
His name was my name too!
What happens when you go out? Do ppl shout? Do they point at you and say, "there goes JJJS?"..asking for a friend
@@carolyndarley1045 LALALALALALALALAAA
😂😂😂
My middle name is my father's mothers maiden name. As an orphan, this led me, through my genealogy, to dozens and dozens of relatives. Without that name, I might still be lost to the Family.
You just forgot to add that, at least in countries like Brazil, middle names are not as common as in America. Instead, Brazilians use NAME + MOM'S SURNAME + DAD'S SURNAME.
We regard the mother's surname as the "middle name". I didn't know they didn't do that in a lot of countries.
So, if a family has 5 children,all the children have their mother's surname? Kindly educate me.
Wow 😮 i didn’t know, I thought it was the same everywhere in Latin America in my country we use one or two middle names, there’s people with more than that but that’s unusual. Is interesting to know Brazilians are different
That's just the Portuguese tradition that used to be kept in Brazil, but it's not that rigid anymore.
Same in Portugal! But we often have 2 first names as well, so it's super long
Oddly enough Hungarians put their last name before their first name unlike any other Europeans (and they rarely have second names). The Hungarian language also doesn’t fit in with the rest of Europe, only being very distantly related to Finnish and Estonian.
magyar rocks yo
Romanians do the same. We use last + first name for official, formal and professional settings and first + last name for informal settings. So, for example, we'd never sign a contract with our first name before our last, but we will sign personal emails this way. Also, we usually present ourselves with our first and last name, but when we're being introduced to some authority figure, we'll probably say the family name first. Almost all fill-in forms first ask for our last name (family name) and it's also written in this order on our ID. Weird, right?
@@andaciocoiu In hungary, I think, we never put our first name first, not even in informal situations. (Only on facebook, but some people even put their first name is the surname section, so it appears in the correct order lol)
Hungarian here, we do have second names, more than half of the people I know have them, including me. (But yes, it is less common than in the rest of Europe.)
Due to the Huns maybe?
Apparently, it was a Mexican trend once to name all girls Maria and all boys Jose in a family. The middle name then served as their identifier and usually was selected from the Catholic calendar. I found this out when my dad, Jose, said his brother, Jose, had just pasted away. I had to ask him which Jose. Afterwards his sister clarified that all her brothers were Jose (even the uncles I didn’t call Jose) and all the girls were Maria, (which none went by).
I think this trend was probably specific to a time and region and more than likely it was typical of a specific socioeconomic class. Maria is so common as a first name that it has its own abbreviation and in the case with my maternal aunt, she doesn’t even consider it her first name, more of a prefix to her name. On my mom’s side that aunt is the only one named Maria and the only one with two names.
I think its common in a lot of catholic countries. In Brazil it was common some decades ago. My mother and all of her sisters have a first name plus "Maria". My grandmother and her sisters have the opposite scheme, with "Maria" followed by a second first name.
Here in my country, the Philippines too. Although, from what I've seen, it's probably a Spanish-Portuguese (i.e. Iberian) cultural thing than a Catholic thing @Ivan Martins...
@@moondust2365 It may be, but someone else commented that it is common also in some francophone countries.
My mom had a friend that was called Mary and she corrected that person that all her sisters are Mary so that isn't what she goes by.
What about boys named José María and girls named María José? How'd that come about?
It’s true that middle names are not used and kind of make no sense in Korea. I’m from America and have two middle names, and when I studied abroad there there was a lot of confusion at first because no administrative database thought I was enrolled/existed, until I realized I needed to use my middle names to search. On all paperwork, there are only boxes for given and family names, but since no part of a name is disregarded in Korea I had to cram my three given names into that box made for two Korean characters, otherwise it would cause administrative confusion. Almost every Korean there is named using exactly three syllables (one for family and two for given,) so when professors came upon my nine syllable name it always broke their stride in role call 😂
Same problem in Japan :D
When I was in korea people were surprised by my middle name haha
OMG!!!! I love this channel and she pronounced my last name correctly!! Thank you guys for this video!!!
Always happy to answer a fan pick!!! Plus this one was an excuse to learn Picasso's middle names. So there were a few reasons to enjoy writing it.
@@pbsorigins my great grandfather was the last member of my family to have his mother's maiden last name as his middle name as did his great uncle.
In Africa ( specifically Ghana the ewe tribe) we give 4 name English name+traditional name+spiritual name ( which depends on the day you're born on)+ surname..
So I am Marian Enam Esi Kushigbor.
Not having a "proper" name can be confusing, however you try to work with it. I am told that a great aunt (never met nor even knew about her until recently) named RG. Pronounced, apparently, AR GEE. One of those odd things in Readers Digest ha I remember from at least 60 years ago was about a man who had only the initials R and B before his family name Jones. When he had to fill out forms, they were often flagged and return as incomplete. He finally decided on this: R(only) B(only) which resulted in getting letters address to Ronly Bonly Jones.
like BJ Hunnicut! lol (from MASH)
That happened to my sister! She has only the letter "A" as a middle name, so her paperwork came back "Aonly".
@@dawnsaurora Who was named after his mother Bea Hunnicut and his father Jay Hunnicut.
lol, I have a cousin with only a "M" for a middle name. Story was that his parents each picked a middle name starting with "M" and couldn't come to an agreement on which to use. So, they decided to let him choose when he grew up. Being diplomatic, he stuck with just the "M."
I have a cousin who called his first born KT after the singer KT Tunstall (who was named Kate at birth, KT just being a stage name) I always wonder what problems this young girl will have on official forms in the future!
In Eritrea (at least the Tigrinya ethnic group), you are given a name and your surname is your father's name. However, Eritreans in the United States have a middle name. Their middle name is their father's name and their surname is their paternal grandfather's name. Also, when a man and a woman get married, the woman will not change her surname. In a family with a mom, a dad, and a child, each person has a different surname. Isn't that neat!
In Rwanda - also in East Africa - we have the tradition that everyone in the family has different last names. There are exceptions, of course. But I didn't know that Eritreans had a somewhat similar tradition. I've researched this topic specifically related to East Africa but I haven't found much information, so I'm glad I saw this comment.
About “middle names” in Chinese languages, we don’t actually have a concept of middle name. People usually have a surname, and their “first name”. Both of them can be consisted of one to two characters. There is no middle name in Chinese naming system. What resembles as a second(-ary) name called ‘字’ was used by ancient figures such as poets, writers, rulers etc. One chooses a secondary name for themselves that represents their character, ambition etc. It went out of use completely after WWII
But we do sometimes use the middle character as a generation marker. It's more of a diaspora thing, though. You can find shining examples of it in the personal names of Ming emperors, and also most Vietnamese names.
Qiyunwu oh yeah that’s true! But the middle character only functions as part of a name instead of by itself, I think its the main difference. Also, it works if the family keeps the tradition or knows the lineage really well. People, family, heirlooms... got displaced because of the wars and regime changes, which IMO is really sad.
In South Korea its family name, generational name, personal name.
My step-mom who is from China says women do not take their husbands last night. Tho she did take “Golden” when she moved to America with my father.
My niece has 2 names. She has her English one but also a Chinese one in correlation with the Chinese calendar.
However it is common to pick a Western name when moving abroad or to socialize with foreigners.
Ha! Her hair changed in the middle!
I saw that too.
Also she put earrings in.
It switched a couple times back and forth. Little distracting
Oh thank you. I thought I was seeing things. That's weird
Her top changed too : )
Here in Brazil is really common to have two first names, and both matricarcal and partriacal surnames.
But I got two surnames from my father anyway having a total of 5 names
João Victor Araújo e Rocha de Carvalho
Or like my brothers,
Tiago Mário Araújo e Rocha de Carvalho
And
Caio Bruno Araújo e Rocha de Carvalho
@@funkysagancat3295 Awesome! :)
My own name can stand as an example of Funky Sagan's first statement.
Nilce
People of certain backgrounds here also may have an ethnic name as well, and it usually goes between the first name(s) and surnames.
My name, for instance, is [Portuguese name] [ethnic name] [mom's surname] [dad's surname]. Whether I'll use my Portuguese or ethnic name depends on where I am, who I'm talking to, how close I am to them (my ethnic name tends to be restricted to family, the community and very close friends) and so on. It's literally happened that someone didn't know I was myself because they didn't know the other name lol
i thought it was so you know you're in trouble when your mum yells at you
My mother gave me a masculine first name (followed by a masculine sir name) so when I applied for jobs I wouldn’t be sexualized (when looking at my resume) or looked down upon as a woman. However, she did give me a feminine middle name so I could still appreciate my woman hood and still have a way to identity myself as a woman. I think she did this because she was looked down a lot for being a woman and just wanted the best for me.
middle names were a godsend when I worked in registrations - being able to differentiate all the different John Smith's was extremely useful when dealing with personal records. I'd always breathe a sigh of relief when I saw people's middle names on file.
What about the African traditions of naming a children. Lets shed some light on that too.
I had a doctor from Ghana and he told me they have a fotmal name and a name that indicates the day of they week you were born on that you went by in the family. I have no idea what happened if you had 5 boys all born on a Friday.
Naming children according to week days is specific to certain cultures. In Nigeria the Hausas in the north practice it mostly.
i found it odd that this was omitted, despite the fact that this was the first continent to even classify names. I added a contribution earlier about Benin because i spent holidays there in a host family ( 3 whole months ) .
but I am half black and that part is southern african. as an eSwatini , you usually get only last name and its a clan name which depending on the region there are about 4 or 5, that is if your entire lineage can be trace on that side. and one first name , which is usually created according to the circumstances of your birth .
if you are adopted, ( very common over there ), your name is still a botanical name like most swazi but its the month of adoption that becomes your last name. I believe in swaziland its Imphala , my mom was adopted by Swazi couple, so Imphala became her last name and her first name is the same as that the adoptive grand mother.
I'm a Kenyan of the Kikuyu tribe. We have 42 different tribes and cultural practices and naming is huge. Among the Kikuyu everybody is given two names at birth and if one is religious or westernized is given a Bible or western name. The last name is always the family name from the father side. The first names were forced on our fathers to by the colonial masters. There is a whole history behind it because we rotate our names. The first daughter or son is always names in the paternal parents, the second son or daughter is always named after the maternal parents, the third son or daughter is named after the first brother or sister of the father and so on... switching in that order. If they are twins in the family... whichever side of the birth order they are born in they are not separated. So the two names come in handy when one has a sibling with the same name, then the other name is used. And if both names are used then the name is altered to mean the version of Junior of that name. Also if a name is given to a child and the child dies, the name can be repeated to another child. But if that other child dies they discard the name and give a name that family members know what they were supposed to be and the name is lost to this family... so we may never have met but if you have family members with similar names, then most likely were distant relatives.... sorry for being lengthy
African children generally don't live out the year, so they don't normally name them.
One of my favorite channels! I get excited everything there is a new video! I love my first and middle name because they are super unique.
As a name nerd, I loooved hearing about this history! I was all so fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
Name nerd?
That Hamilton reference tho.
Came to the comments to see anyone else who saw it lol
madmakoe101 same here haha
omg yes
Hello group of people that came to the comments specifically for that 👋Can I join
r/woosh
you folks are doing the most amazing thing, so genuinely delighted with every video, BLESS!
I was thought so much more then I expected. Thank you and I will need to watch again to keep all this info straight.
This is so interesting! I always heard that we had middle names because names have power, and people who know your full name have power over you, so middle names are like a secret name, so people don't know your full name and have power over you. Silly I know, but I really like it even if it totally isn't true 😂
I love this! It sure feels like so. My full name means: God is gracious, wished child, and the one who deserves love 😍 and Bullrush, the weed 😅😂
My grandmother's family had a fairly long running tradition of naming all the girls Margaret and calling them by their middle names. This made it way easier to trace maternal lines in the family. My grandmother's family was mainly English and Irish though.
It stopped during my mother's generation though :(.
How fun, my grandmother and mother had Margareta as middle names, but my mom hated it so much she took it off. I believe even my great grandmother had Margareta in her name. It would have been fun to keep it.
But instead we have four Maureens on my fathers side 😀 Hope that will continue ❤️ (both me and my daughter have it for our second names!)
Great video, thank you for posting! Can't wait to check out some of your other videos!
I am SO using this in my classes! This video was SO GOOD! Thank you!!!
Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
I loved that reference
Pinky Stan me too
But prefer “Íñigo”
Sara MB
Oh, Thank you! I was just going off off the spelling that the video and google had.
@@saramb6879 its Iñigo not Íñigo
Dunno about the character, Lucas Infante the name itself it’s “Íñigo” no doubt😜
@@saramb6879 no, beacsue then the first i would be accentuated. I know it cause my first language is spanish
Thank you for this! I literally have six names! ( Two first, two middle and two last) after learning the origin as to why this may occur I now take pride in all my of my many names!
This is the first time that I have seen you on CZcams. You have a great voice for narrating these videos. Interesting topic and well-done presentation.
Two of my older brothers used their middle names to the extent that I was ten before I learned that those weren't their first names.
In Spain we normally have a personal name, our father’s first surname and our mother’s first surname. It’s getting less and less common to have middle names, but if we do, it has something to do with our Christian name or something like that. A friend of mine needed to be called Dakota de las Mercedes, because otherwise she couldn’t have been baptized back in the day, hahaha.
In the Arabian peninsula, middle names can stretch for as long as you want, because they reflect patrial generations (father's name -> grandfather's name -> great grandfather's name -> ...etc) and then the last name. Usually with a "ben" (son of) or a "bint" (daughter of) in between the names. The last name is actually not considered a "name" but more of an adjective that reflects the tribe your family linage is coming from.
In official papers they usually ask for either the tripartite full name with (first name + 2 middle names + last name) or the quaternary
full name (first name + 3 middle names + last name).
Yuzan Its the same in Somalia. My name is a extension of my fathers lineage. He has memorized up to 40 ish.
Most of Asia and Africa is like that
@@s.a.8548 I know that in Japan and China it's a totally different system. I'm not sure about the rest of east asia and south east asia.
I'm from Sweden and there is a fairly recent trend in my mother's side of the family of giving children 'middle' names in front of their personal names, or sticking the personal name between two 'middle' names. My mom has the initials V.I.B but goes by I, I have the initials A.P.L.K.B but have always gone by Paula and my brother N.A.R.K.B goes by R (we also have both of our parents' last names, to confuse things further). It's convenient when telemarketers want to talk to V, A or N and none of them are in. ;)
There are many cultures where most people don't have middle names.
One thing to note is that in Pablo Picasso's name, everything before Ruiz y Picasso are given names. Ruiz is his paternal family name and Picasso is his maternal family name. So while we usually talk about him with his maternal last name his paternal last name is legally the principal name he would use.
French names are weird. No middle names but multiple first names. And if you're Catholic? Then you've also got Marie or Joseph in there.
Plus you get sons named after the father while having their own name.
So for example my grandfather was Joseph-Jean-Marc, and went by Jean. His 3 sons were Joseph-Jean-Marc, Joseph-Jean-Luc, and Joseph-Jean-Benoit. All 3 of THEM going by the last name in the 3. So Marc, Luc, and Benoit.
Although it kinda got disrupted with my brother bc of the Scottish tradition of naming first sons directly after the father on my mom's side, so he's Joseph-Luc-André, but instead of going by André, he goes by Luc, and Luc-André around my dad's side of the family to avoid confusion.
And then my sister and I have Marie hyphenated into our first names but we have middle names 🤷♂️
[Idk how true this is for French people elsewhere, we're French Canadian, and I know a lot of linguistic stuff is different for us]
this is so extremely interesting and i love how it's different in different parts of the world. thank you!
I just love your videos & the beautiful glow in your personality! Thanks & much love!
Arabs don't have middle names like that, it goes like this first name then father's name then surname (which is family/tribe name). because linage is important amongst arabs we have father's name then grandfather's name then great grandfather's name etc can go for a long way back. for example Sarah Mohamed Hussain Saleh Al-Murri
As someone who has no clue of the Arabic language, I've always thought it was very curious to see Arab names, mostly because there isn't a great variation between them... Or maybe I just wasn't exposed to many different names.
@@kauemoura There are definitely more variations than you've been exposed to, but there tend to be a pattern of names within the same region, usually for male names as fathers tend to name their children (first born mostly) as their own fathers. So it's not unfamiliar to see a man who has his grandfather's name while his father could have his great grandfather's name as well 😅. So you might meet a Muhammad Omar Muhammad Omar (insert family name) which IS confusing even for natives. Girl's on the other hand have a better chance at having a new name as the tradition of naming a girls after her own grandmother is less previlant. I'm sure other Arabs might have different experiences other than I mentioned but this is mine as someone living in the peninsula region 🤷🏻♀️
@@wb8695 Oh, I see, what about surnames, are they also of patronymic and work related origin, such as "Johnson, son of John" or "Smith"? Or based off of place names? (I mean, I'm sure wikipedia must have an article on the topic, but since I'm here, haha).
I am Mexican American and don’t have a middle name but when I got married in Lebanon any official document asked for my fathers name. This was used as my “middle” name.
I was waiting for the video to mention Arabic names. I'm an American married to an Arab, and we followed Arabic naming tradition with our children. In the US, people were confused why our children didn't have middle names. I thought that was less confusing than trying to explain why my daughter's middle name is masculine (ie her father's name) or why all of my children have the same middle name. Then we moved to the middle east, and spent the next 20 years dealing with schools and government offices who were upset that my children's birth certificates didn't list their father's and grandfather's name as part of their name. And it was odd seeing my name written with my father and grandfather's names instead of my middle name, lol. Schools here frequently ask the kids to write out their full names on exam papers, which can take up most of the top of a page when they are long names. Lots of "first names" in Arabic are made up of more than one word, like "Servant of The Merciful" or "Light of the Faith." They're a bit shorter in Arabic, but still long when there are 3 of them plus the family name!
That was interesting. My middle name comes from my Mom's side of the family and is shared with my grandpa and a few of my cousins. So it's somewhat of a family name. This was a very informative video. I liked it.
batmanfanforever08 Our Family is English and we also had this naming tradition, although it has lost it’s popularity in later generations. The first born, male or female, would have the mother’s maiden name as their middle name.
@@sowvision1673 That naming tradition has never applied in my family. My ancestors don't come from England, my ancestors actually came from Germany and immigrated to America in about 1910. Not all Americans had English ancestors. Does that make sense?
I throughly enjoyed the presentation of this video.
Cool video :D In Portugal, we tend to represent both of our family's surnames, and not consider them as middle names at all, something like "First name" "maternal grandmother maiden name", "paternal grandmother maiden name", "mothers maiden name", "fathers surname". Also, in the past, there was a tradition to give two personal names, where boys got the first name Manuel and girls the first name Maria, which led to people just calling themselves by their middle name- like Maria Isabel just calling herself Isabel. I quite like having so many surnames, makes me feel closer to my ancestors, although it's a pain when you need to fill in forms xD
When I was at MIT in 1960, there was a sign on the door of the Dean of Students, which said, "Be prepared to spell your name in full. If unsure, check identification."
Initially I thought this was a joke, but later considered that it could be due to the multiple saint's names some Catholics had.
As a kid I would forget if my second and third name had a hyphen between them or not (they do). I still double-checked this when filling out important papers in my teens.
I couldn't spell my middle name until I was nine because it's a very Catholic Spanish name (Montserrat). My (white) dad almost misspelled it on my birth certificate. I also knew a Thai kid who couldn't pronounce or spell his 20ish character last name.
My sister name is Montserrat and we call her monse, or moon.... and i call her monches
I went by a nickname as a kid. To this day I still have to spell my first name to myself when I write it on forms
@@palomajune1863 I only found out a couple of years ago that I had been misspelling one of my middle names for my entirely life... that also reminds me of one of friends who had been mispronouncing his own first name for his entire life, and his mother just never bothered to correct him.
1:35 That Hamilton reference tho
r/woosh
@@Perririri what do you mean?
FINALLY SOMEONE SAW IT 😂😂😂❤
@@Perririri why are you going around wooshing people for no reason bro
I love that you showed that painting by Fragonard! The Swing is so awesome.
Interesting video! ( & the shelf in the background is everything.👍)
Just found this channel and I'm super stoked that not only do you give fun information, but I'm really glad that it's hosted by a woman of color. Keep up the good work, and I'm definitely subscribing!
Man what does her being a black woman make the video better or worse ?
@@mrronron7328 he/she is the type who acuses innocent people of racism
@@amelieblanche920 I feel like it indeed
My mum wanted my brother and I to take on one of our grandparents names so that they wouldn't be lost. My brother's middle name is therefore rather unusual "Hamilton", which is more often a surname than a first name. The Germans have rules on assigning names and did not allow Hamilton as a first or middle name, so my mum took her birth certificate which showed that it was actually my grandfather's first name so they allowed it. Luckily the clerk didn't realize that all of my grandpa's first and middle names were actually surnames. I guess my great grandparents thought it was funny to do so :D
Having your middle name from on of your ancestors is actually a great way to be a part of your family's history. I somehow feel closer connected to my grandma, who I was named after, without ever having met her.
ITS MOM NOT MUM
She is a beautiful speaker! loved listening you go sis!
I was given my mom’s middle name as my middle name, which is actually the inspiration for my CZcams moniker.
Each of my kids have two middle names. I have a love of names in general, and it was difficult to narrow down to just two names (a first and middle), so we decided to use three for each, a first and two middles. Plus, I had a friend growing up who has two middle names, and she always loved it, so I thought... why not? :-)
Im afraid that they'd have a hard tike writing though. I wanted to name my daughter Marcheline Eleanor (from mother) Belle (from mother in law) but is it too long?
In Italy people don't usually have middle names. I have one though, Annamaria, after my paternal grandma's first name.
This episode is unique and interesting. Thanks.
My dad was a lawyer and used his middle initial. Great info! Also, miss you much Dad...Charles L House
I love this host!
anyone else noticed that her style changes partway through? lol
Yup...her hair change is first shown at 2:23
No I was too busy concentrating on her flailing arms the whole time.
Its the Middle Look.
My brother was named after his paternal grandfather--Claude Odom--and my grandmother's family--Anderson. He was named Claude Andrew. I loved my mother's thoughtfulness.
Middle name for me is like a secret name that only close friends get to learn.
You really tried not to be Anglo-centric in the video, which I really appreciate. This said, the very words Middle names are completely Anglo-centric, and are nearly meaningless in most other languages, even European ones. You hint to this, you go so far as to show that the words make no sense in Korean (most languages in tha region of the world have somewhat similar naming systems). That's all good, and I thank you for this. This being said, you never actually say that Middle names *today* are only mostly used in Anglophone countries. In Francophone countries, just to give an example, you very often have dual prénoms (first names), some with a hyphen, some without, and neither of these two first names are a middle name. For example, Marie-Claude or Jean Marie. Jean Marie is a dual first name; they are a prénom together. Among French Canadians and Acadians in Canada, children have traditionally been given *several* prénoms; girls get Marie as the very first of these, boys getting Joseph, and their usual name, the one you get called by is the last in the list, the closest to the family name. For example, a boy is named Joseph Martin Xavier Tremblay, called habitually Xavier Tremblay. None of these prénoms are middle names, and the first name is not his First name.
The South, in the US, has dual first names. They are rarer, but Billie-Sue, Joe-Anne, Billy-Jean, Bobby-Lee are the kinds of examples. I wonder if/how they relate to your examples?
@@TragoudistrosMPH I'm not sure they're related per se, but I wonder how those are dealt with in administrative settings. In my experience, in the US, dual first names, even with a hyphen, will be split up and the second half presumed a middle name, unless one puts up a fuss.
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
@@Mlle_Bleue haha, I'm not sure, actually... a good example from my great grandparents' generation was the use of initials as a name. One was TB and another was YD.
The army changed one to Tom Beauford, and the other was given a name elsewhere. It may have been due to race, though too, but they'd probably do that to any person in those days (I'd hope, but who knows...)
Pretty much the same thing in Spain: if someone is Juan Carlos Suárez you can't call him Juan Suárez or Carlos Suárez. You can break it if a woman's name includes María, as in María Isabel who can (and usually are) called Isabel only.
The origin of Standard 52-card deck.
Great educational video!
Thank very much you are great explaning.
I've always found Arabic naming tradition to be really fascinating. As someone who does genealogy, and minored in history in college, the idea that your name is literally a string of your ancestors' names, going back a set number of generations is really useful.
"First Name", son/daughter of "father's name", son of "grandfather's name", etc., etc., of the family "Surname".
Pretty much prevents people from having too similar of a name, while simultaneously giving patrilineal family history.
I have seen a lot that just have their father's first name as a last name. Because they don't use surnames like we do, so a lot of my son's friends in school have Mohammed as last names. And my best friends father just took his fathers name, because he never had a last name in Iran.
Will as Arabs we really care about genealogy and family tries, as tribal society we take pride in our lineages since even our surnames are extension of our great grandfathers.
For me what’s cool - other than knowing my own lineage - is seeing how names change as you go back in times with only famous ones staying the same through many generations!
Trust India to have other variants, particularly in South.
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And there can be other variants along those lines too. I have seen many with four or five initials before their names.
Great show!!
Thank You for this great Information you are so great to have helped out with my name
What about a video on "sugar rush"? Is that even a thing?
Because I live in Brazil and this American concept that if a kid eats candy/too much candy they start to scream, jump, shout obscenities, kick adults, have their heads doing a 360º and will never ever sleep again... really?
That stuff often shows in American films and is something that I always believed to be some weird movie trope, but recently I've spoken with some Americans and they REALLY seem to believe that that is a thing, and will point out that their kid get hyperactive at birthday parties as a proof.
Do Americans put coke on their sugar? Because I can't imagine another explanation for something like that only affecting children from one country in the world. Except, maybe, confirmation bias (the child overhears the parents saying that they are gonna get crazy and not sleep because they ate sugar and thus the kid happily obliges, or the parents not noticing that it is a party full of kids running about and not the cake that makes the kids jump and scream, perhaps?).
I say American because Brazil is, historically, a sugar producing country, and while sugar is a very unhealthy sweetener, I literally don't know a single Brazilian that would find normal if their kids begun to behave like demons from another dimension after eating too much candy. They would probably just have a stomachace and ask to cuddle for a while.
I am really curious about where did this myth of "sugar = demonic possession" originate.
I'm from Spain, we don't have such concept here either, I only heard of it from american shows and it always confused me greatly... it seems like a very USA-thing to show up on TV.
When a child gets too much sugar, they can become very hyper and energetic for a period of time. In movies, they often show them being naughty as a joke, but in real life maybe they just cannot sit still for a while. For example, I work at a daycare center for young children, and one morning, a little boy ate some candy when his mom wasn't looking that morning. After she brought him to our daycare, he couldn't stay still during the lesson time and only wanted to run around the room and yell a lot. Finally, he calmed down at lunchtime, and slept at naptime after his blood sugar came down. He was much more calm in the afternoon.
Also, American food has a lot of sugar in it, and often has large portion sizes for all food and desert, so it I would not surprise me if "sugar rush" is more common here than some other countries because of this. Most parents have to be careful at parties about how many sweets thier children have, because it is easy for it to be too much.
I'm from Panama but live in the US, the concept isnt a thing there either, but here, there is so much sugar in things you wouldn't expect, for ex: bread, hot dogs, can soup and vegetables, salsa, I could go on..plus, sugar is registered as a drug here. its a stimulant and in excess causes diseases and withdrawal
@@doll_dress_swap1269 The problem is not that "sugar rush" is "more common in America", but that America seems to be the only place in the world where this thing (suposedly) happens. And that is what seems... off.
Because, where I live at least, junk food is a staple of everyday urban life, and almost entirely made of products from American companies following American recipes, from M&Ms to McDonald's, from Doritos to Coke and everything in between. The only American junk food I've never seen in person is Dr. Pepper. All the rest is fair game. One would think that the same products would cause the same effect all around the world, right?
In fact, since sugar is addictive and increases the sales, I find it really hard to believe that Coke or any other company would reduce the concentration of sugar in their formula for the foreing market, for no other reason than to preserve non-American children from sugar rushes.
I wish the well being of children was a concern for companies. I wish.
P.S.: In fact, the only difference in Brazilian and American junk food I can think of is that, here, we have a lot of very popular soda brands made of guarana fruit, which is a local fruit, so you probably don't have that in America. Still, guarana IS soda, and thus quite sugary.
My dad's name as a Russian patronymic would me weird because he has an extremely Scottish first name. Thus I have a very Irish name.
ERYN in my opinion you should’ve said Gaelic...
Though I have an Irish name anyway. (Kaelyn)
Use mac
Middle names are important in the film industry too. Many unions and guilds such as SAG-AFTRA and the WGA/DGA require all members to have unique names for the purposes of screen credits. This is the reason many actors, writers and directors use their middle name or initial.
Fun and informative video!
Extra toes!
Polydactyly!! I love genetic mutations! like extra fingers/toes (single mutation) which happens to be genetically dominate. Those who either expressed it were killed or potentially bred the trait out or now removed with surgery.
I find it interesting how our choices of our environment have such an effect on our gene pool.
Lol What did this have to do with the video?
Apparently an extra little finger is more common in Europe and an extra thumb is more common in Africa.
my middle name is marie like so many other girls
In my maternal line all girls have Maria or Mari as their third name.
My middle name is Mary too but it's spelt with a y
Lol I remember moving and going to a new elementary school and more than half of the girls in my class had Marie as their middle name.
Very informative, thank you.
The sixth toe 😄 I learnt a lot seriously. I like this program.
0:57 What's up with that kids face
It's terrifying
I don't have one
me neither
I'm Italian, I have 5 middle names ( of patron saints and of my grandmothers ) but they're never used
I know this is random, but I love how at 1:31 the king is saying “awesome, wow.” Great Hamilton reference! 💛🖤💛
Picasso was a misogynist and child predator. I'm sure there are some examples of people with long names who werent trash.
The video didn't explain well how it works in Spain anyway as Picasso was his mother's surname (the second) and Ruiz was his father's (first surname). As a child he would have been called Pablo Ruiz Picasso and possibly only Pablo Ruiz.
Did he stay away from Spain because of Franco?
I love your engaging speaking style!
In my family, the naming scheme is as follows:
First name (chosen by the parents),
Middle name (usually the mother's maiden name)
Last name (family name)
My middle name is Siobhan and when I was younger I wasn't found of it, but over time I started liking it. It actually flows really nicely with my whole name, and with a French first name and a English last name it sounds really unique. It also connects me to my maternal Irish roots, I was born and raised in England with my English father but it's nice to have a reminder that I have roots elsewhere.
It is so interesting to see how different cultures give names and what the significance to it is. When I was in Taiwan, I had some interesting conversations with my coworkers about names, because sometimes they would want me to pick out an English name for them or for our students. They were surprised that it was common to use an ancestor's name in English names, since it was common for them to get their names chosen several days after being born by consulting the fortune teller.
An informational CZcams video in which big words are pronounced correctly-what?!? I’m a new subscriber!!
Among some American Amish communities, a middle initial (there is no name, just the initial) is a matronymic. You get your surname from your father's family, but your middle initial from your mother's family! If your mother's name is Rachel C. Zurcher and your father's name is Jacob M. Barnhart, your name might be Caleb C. Barnhart or Leah C. Barnhart.
After moving to the South (US), I discovered it's fairly common for people to go by two first names. And some of my friends have two middle names. One of those friends have her first son to middle names, but opted to name her second son after his father, making him the third generation beating the family name. I have a second cousin with the same first and last name, but he goes by Matt and I go by Matthew, so there's less reason for me to use my middle initial.
Very good video! I always wondered....
Great! Thanks!
All I know is, I was raised Catholic and you were given a baptism name as a baby and a Confirmation name when you were deemed an adult in the eyes of God and both names were a Saint's name.
As far as I know, back int the day, having a lot of names like Pablo Picasso was a way of showing how rich your family was.