{"id":12125,"date":"2016-05-30T08:33:41","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T12:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=12125"},"modified":"2016-11-22T19:20:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T23:20:05","slug":"baby-naming-issue-how-many-middle-names-may-a-child-legally-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2016\/05\/30\/baby-naming-issue-how-many-middle-names-may-a-child-legally-have\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: How Many Middle Names May a Child Legally Have?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! I can’t believe I FINALLY get to email you a baby name question. Hooray!<\/p>\n

I’m Julia, husband is Niall. Baby Clover (nickname) is due 10\/16\/16. Surname is Faygan (spelled without the y).<\/p>\n

So far we seem to be doing okay with naming discussions. Nobody has a hill to die on, YET. We don’t know the sex of the baby but we will find out in about 2 weeks (hopefully!!!), so it seems like we’re in a first name holding pattern until then– discussions are pretty hypothetical.<\/p>\n

My surname is G0dl3y (but obviously spelled with letters instead of numbers). I haven’t legally changed my surname and I’m not sure if I’m going to, but I’ve adopted Faygan as my stage name. The baby will get Niall’s last name, even though mine is clearly better. He moved to California from Ireland away from his whole family and he’s putting down roots here and making it his home and having a family here, and oh fine the baby gets your last name.<\/p>\n

Niall did agree to having G0dl3y be a middle name for this child and any others we may have. AND he also told me, and I quote, “The baby can have as many middle names as you want.”<\/p>\n

I think he meant it as somewhat of a joke, because he doesn’t care about middle names, but I’m taking this and running with it. I have a whole list of potential middle names.<\/p>\n

And this brings me to my question (finally)– How many middle names is too many?<\/p>\n

To be clear, this is not an OPINION question. What I want to know is, logistically and legally speaking, what is the maximum number of middle names a person can have? I’ve tried to look it up online, but I keep getting suckered into message boards where people ask “can I give my baby three middle names?” and the responses vary from “Sure! Give you kid as many names as you want” to “What are you, BRITISH ROYALTY?” There seems to be some consensus that two middle names is good\/great\/fine, but three is COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE.
\n(Why, though? Who cares? How is it hurting you if someone’s child has two or zero or seven middle names? I like middle names. I think they’re decorative. But I digress.)<\/p>\n

So, anyway. I’m not interested in reading a comment war about what a terrible mother I am if I saddle my child with four or five middle names. What I want to know is, CAN I? How big are the name spaces on the baby’s birth certificate? Where do I write multiple middle names? Do I have to do something extra in order to add extra names? I’m fine with doing that, but I’d rather know now than ask some harassed hospital personnel when I’m exhausted and post-childbirth. Is the child going to have to write ALL of his\/her names on legal forms or can he\/she choose a favorite and stick with that one for forms and keep the others for decoration?<\/p>\n

Just for fun, here are some of the middle names I’ve got in mind:<\/p>\n

Stoneburner- my grandmother’s maiden name. I used to think it would make an awesome first name for a boy, but after living in SF it just seems to give off too much of a stonery or pottheadsih vibe.<\/p>\n

Amethyst- from one of my favorite books, The Ordinary Princess. I’ve always loved the name and it REMINDS me of my grandmother because the book makes me think of her.<\/p>\n

Raffetto- My mother’s maiden name. I had thought about it as a first name for a boy, but I don’t love the nicknames Ralph or Raffy, so… nah.<\/p>\n

David, John, Robert, Charles- Niall’s and my fathers’ and grandfathers’ names.<\/p>\n

Jane, Frances, Kathleen, Maureen, Marie, Eve, Florence – Niall’s and my grandmothers’ and mothers’ first and middle names.<\/p>\n

Clover- I actually like it as a first name, but it might be better as a middle name.<\/p>\n

Rainbow- Niall said “Why don’t we just call the baby Clover?” as a joke and I perked up and said “Great! Sure!” and then he backpedaled. So then I jokingly suggested Rainbow, which I really do like.<\/p>\n

Poppy- Very close to my heart as a Californian.<\/p>\n

Athlone- Niall’s town in Ireland where he grew up.<\/p>\n

Okay, so now just imagine for a moment wee baby boy __________ Stoneburner Charles Clover G0dl3y Faygan. Or little baby girl __________ Frances Florence Rainbow Kathleen G0dl3y Faygan. HOW ADORABLE IS THAT? (Very. It’s very adorable. Somebody come with me on this.)<\/p>\n

Thank you for your help!!<\/p>\n

Love,
\nJules<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

So! I did not know the answer to this. And when I tried to find out the answer, I too got distracted by a bunch of comments sections filled with people saying what they THOUGHT was true, or thought SHOULD be true, rather than what they had reason to KNOW was true. Typically the comments section of a name blog is (and should be) filled with opinions, but what is needed here is a gear-change into FACTS. Here are the facts I have so far:<\/p>\n

Birth certificates and their application forms vary by state. Each state has their own way of doing it. In my state, I was very annoyed to find that they could not print my full name on my children’s birth certificates, because they will print only one middle name in the field for parent name, and I have two. This drives me crazy. But anyway, here’s the baby name field for a baby born in California:<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Not a whole lot of space. I think you could squeeze four middle names in there if you wrote small. After that, I think you’d have to ask for help from the person who assists parents with the form, and hope you got a helpful, experienced, problem-solving type of clerk instead of a stubborn, inflexible type of clerk. Some states have their forms available online, to be partially filled out ahead of time. This seems like a great idea if you want to practice writing tiny. Also, I vote that your husband be put in charge of being firm yet charming with any clerk who proves stubborn. Although I’ll add that exhausted postpartum crying can be a very effective technique.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I looked up images for “California birth certificate,” and it looks to me as if the printed certificate looks very similar to the application:<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

It looks to me as if the child’s legal birth certificate will not have room for multiple middle names. I don’t know what they’ll do instead. Maybe just print the first one? Maybe print as many letters as will fit in the field? But I think it’s likely that the birth certificate would not show all the middle names, which I find disappointing.<\/p>\n

Here is the second fact, and this is the one that will be a little difficult for many of us to hear: according to the United States government, middle names are not part of a person’s legal name<\/a>. This also applies to suffixes such as Jr., III, IV: they’re not part of the legal name, even though they’re permitted to appear on legal documents. You can put them wherever you want, but legally-speaking they’re only decorative. This means that the government takes no official stance on how many middle names your child may have. This is a little odd coming from an entity that cares what color pen you use to fill out the forms, but okay.<\/p>\n

And it’s good news, in that it means you are not legally prevented from using four or five middle names. It’s also bad news, in that the government is not motivated to get it right or help you get it right. On the page I just linked to, it literally says that it does not matter if the middle name(s) or suffix(es) are incorrect or omitted on government forms and cards. It may matter to the bank, or it may matter to a particular government clerk who mistakenly thinks it matters, but it does not matter to the government itself.<\/p>\n

So no, the child will not have to use all middle names on all forms, though he or she is very likely to regularly run into problems with people who think consistency IS required. Many forms allow for only one middle initial; I’d recommend picking one to consistently default to.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the early stages of this research, while still bogged down in sites full of people saying what they THOUGHT about multiple middle names, I asked Paul to help me figure out how to figure this out. He found two interesting things to contribute:<\/p>\n

1. One of Uma Thurman’s children has many middle names: Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson. So she must have found a way to fill out the form.<\/p>\n

2. There’s also this gentleman<\/a>, whose name is so long it is often written with an “etc.” in it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

I’ve been meaning to send this for ages, but things kind of got away from me.
\n“Baby Clover” was born on 10\/14\/16 after 43 hours of labor (oof). His name (are you ready for it?) is Tiernan Jack Stoneburner G0dl3y Faygan.
\nNiall and I had agreed on the first name Tiernan a couple of months before his birth, but managed to keep it a secret until he was born (we had to make SURE that was his name once we got a look at him on the outside). We wanted something Irish that wouldn’t be too terribly difficult to pronounce or spell.
\nJack is for Niall’s middle name (John), his dad’s name (John), and his grandfather (Jack).
\nStoneburner is my grandmother’s maiden name.
\nG0dl3y is my last name, but it is one of Tiernan’s middle names, not a surname.
\nIn case you are wondering, ‘Jack Stoneburner G0dl3y’ represents the maximum number of middle name characters you can have on a birth certificate (in CA)! The lady doing our forms told us we would probably have to drop one of Tiernan’s middle names (which caused newly postpartum me to weep), but they all ended up juuuuuust fitting! Whew.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much for all your help!<\/p>\n

Jules<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! I can’t believe I FINALLY get to email you a baby name question. Hooray! I’m Julia, husband is Niall. Baby Clover (nickname) is due 10\/16\/16. Surname is Faygan (spelled without the y). So far we seem to be doing okay with naming discussions. Nobody has a hill to die on, YET. We don’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-39z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12125"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12434,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12125\/revisions\/12434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}