Do parents give their children middle names so that the kids will know when they're in big trouble?
As a kid, when a parent calls you by your full name, you’re in for it.
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Hmmm. I don’t have a middle name, and my parents have never had a problem letting me know when I am in trouble.
I guess the middle name “scott” just doesn’t roll off the tongue well enough, cause that never happened with me.
It happened in my family. If the first and middle names were called or yelled, someone was in Big trouble. It happened to all the kids in the neighborhood. And when any kid was called by both names, it struck fear in all of us.
Yeah, my parents did the same thing to me when I was growing up. If they called me “Sara Jean!” I knew I did something wrong.
My parents never called me by my full name when I was in trouble; I don’t think it would have been effective. I think middle names are for more distinction between individuals (so many more people would have the same exact name if we only had two), and possibly a compromising thing between parents (ie using the middle name to settle a dispute about the first name).
I don’t have a middle name, nor do my sisters, but as soon as I am called by my first name I know I am in trouble.
@Tink1113 How do you parents refer to you when you’re not in trouble?
haha yeah my mother was always either really happy or really mad when she called me by my middle name…
@The_Compassionate_Heretic They always address me by another name, haha, I don’t know why but they call me Maritza or Mariah. And that’s not even my name.
I don’t know the reason for the middle name. Maybe because people had the same names not much variety, or something like that. I know my mother loved to use it when she was pissed. As I aged, I began to mock her. Ha.That’ll show her.
I had a nickname for everyday use. When I was in for it, I got called by my given first name. My middle name is so corny, no one bothered to use it. I should legally get rid of it.
Well, John Allen Smith is fairly common wherease John Pubert Smith is not. Identification. And I agree – no matter what your name – your parents will always be able to effectively let you know when you’re in for it.
My name isn’t a good full name to yell. My parents never call me by it, in it’s entirety. I do call my son by his first and middle name when he’s in big trouble. I also call my cats by their full name when they’re being bad.
Wiki has some cool info on middle names http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_name
Haha,I dont have a middle name! :P Whenever I’m in trouble is when my parents say my name meanly,which is bad.:( I’m a magnet for danger and trouble.:P
There seems to be a lot of people on here without middle names and that really surprises me. I thought that was something that older generations did not do, but apparently, I am wrong.
I kind of like having a middle name (even though technically it isn’t my middle name, more so my original first name) but I think keeps my name from sounding like a bad comic book super hero.
Spencer Reinhardt
my last name starts with an ‘S’, thus the super hero reference
The R name kind of keeps it all together :).
My middle name comes from a kid getting yelled at by his mother at the hospital. So it is a possibility.
@ABoyNamedBoobs03 Spencer is one of the guys names on “Criminal Mind.” I like the name.
@chyna It surprises me too. I thought it was common to get a middle name…I don’t think I know anyone without one.
@ABoyNamedBoobs03 So, your middle name was your first name but you switched them around…why don’t you go by Reinhardt? Also, my cat Spencer’s middle name is F
My parents never, ever, called me by my name, so this doesn’t apply to me.
I did hear them call my sisters by their full name, though. Thats when I would listen at the heat register.
My dad will call me “Elizabeth” when he’s upset, but I don’t recall my parents ever calling me by my full name.
It was strange, my Mom would go through my two older brothers names before she got to me, and it would have been funny if the beating that followed hadn’t happened.
I thought middle names were mostly so both sets of grandparents could claim the kid was named for someone in their family.
I know quite a few people who have a middle name that is actually just a single letter, such as G.
I know quite a few people, including my brother, who are always called by their middle name but never by their first.
All of my relatives from Florida are called by both their first and middle names all the time, as in Mary Francis, Edna Oliver, Bobby Jo, and Billy Joe.
And my son has two middle names, one from my husband’s side of the family and one from his birth parents. His first name is actually from both my husband’s and my sides.
I have a middle name because the day before my baby naming my parents realized my initials would have been ASS.
I don’t think either of my parents have ever used my middle name for anything, and never for when I’m in “big trouble.” When I am in “big trouble,” they just draw out my first name in that special mommy-angry-drawl when you know you’re in for an ass whooping.
If mom was REALLY serious I got my first and middle name. When she was really flustered she would say “Je Jo jer ja jef, I mean JUDI!!!”
she had six kids and we all started with “J.”
My youngest sister (#6) didn’t have a middle name. We always told her our parents were too tired to think of one.
When Catholics are confirmed they can take another name to mark their new status. I chose Josephine. I have absolutely no reason why The only Josephine I had heard oj was Jacqualine Suzanne’s dog.
I am from the South where middle names are often used even when you aren’t in trouble. The fact is my name is “Gary Dale” and not “Gary”. I have spent pretty much my entire adult life explaining that to Yankees and foreigners!
I think the real reason we have a middle name is because legal papers look ridiculous with John NMI Hancock on them (No Middle Initial)
Nope, not Betty Jo, gawd, no, but Jo is my legal middle name. I hate it.
Betty Joe, Bobby Joe, and Billy Joe, wasn’t it?
Yes Betty Jo , Bobbie Jo and Billie Jo were their names. I’ve only seen a few minutes of the show, myself, in one of my TV history classes at uni, but when those names came up, I cringed as my classmates guffawed. So glad the screening room was dark.
I watched it every day growing up. There was also Uncle Joe
My parents call me by my full name when I get in trouble, I don’t have a middle name so they call me, Anthony.
Not my parents, but other people do.
With a name like that you don’t need a middle name AN THON YYYY get inside.
Hmm. I would have thought the middle name was at least as useful for letting your parents name you in honor of Grandpa Aloysius or Great-Aunt Mehitabel without actually having to call you that.
@casheroo when my parents named me I didn’t have a middle name, just Reinhardt. But when we moved to the states and my father took us to get registered for school, he told me and my brothers that we could pick what ever names we wanted. Adam and Travis were boring and stuck with their own names, my brother Carson picked Jacob because that was my Dad’s name.
I was six at the time we moved and When I was young I was obsessed with this horrible detective/private eye show, “Spencer for Hire”. So naturally, I picked Spencer. My passport and driver’s license say “Spencer-Reinhardt” but my birth info and anything else before then just says Reinhardt.
I respond to both, (usually not a lot of Spencers or Reinhardts in the room you know lol?) But most just call me Spencer, except my Mother and a few girlfriends over the years, that is.
For me it was the other way around. My parents gave me my middle names just to get me into trouble. In case you are wondering my middle names sound like I am a dutch farmer from the 1400’s
@ABoyNamedBoobs03 great story, thank god my parents didn’t give me that option when I was six. I would probably have chosen inspector gadget or barbapappa :) I am a little sad to hear your name isn’t boobs though, but that was probably the name you would have chosen if they asked you at 13 years old ;)
In the UK it’s vey common to have a middle name. All my family bar my dad have middle names. My 2 neices have 2 middle names, as they flow better…
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Hmm. “Dammit” as first name seems to be how I do it with my kids too. I have hardly ever used their full names in that way.
hahahha.
my mum has never called me by my full name.
i use mine as my last name for facebook, since it doesn’t believe in my real last name.
i love how there are people on facebook with last names like ‘cutiepielol’ but mine is just ~impossible
Come to think of it, their full names are just for announcements (birth, graduation, etc.) and legal documents. “Dammit, —-” is for serious annoyance, and “Goddammit, —-” is for real exasperation. When it’s something greater and worse than that, I think I fall silent.
Middle names are the norm in any part of the U.S. or Canada that I’ve been exposed to. (My father was Canadian.) They’re typically used to honor someone or just to sound nice. My sister gave her daughter only a first name and said she could choose her own middle name when she was older.
@aprilsimnel, I think we promise not to call you Aprilsimnel Jo. Don’t we? So very many of us have regrettable middle names. It’s as if our parents intended them as secret humiliations so that they could threaten us with exposure.
yes ..because it gives them time to think about their exact response!
@aprilsimnel, I lived in an apartment in the North End for a year, on a street that looked exactly like that, two streets over from Prince Street. It was a great neighborhood, although it had a definite downside. I never saw Anthony, but I sure heard kids called from windows. Women conducted most of their social lives leaning out the windows. I used to eat Prince spaghetti on Wednesdays too.
@aprilsimnel Not until I saw that video. That’s how my mom yells at me when she wants me inside the house too. But with more anger thrown in there.
oh my gosh, this brings back abundant memories. there is a family in my town who i have known since infancy, great people, with quite a tough lady for a mom. i always thought it funny that i knew her three sons full names because every moment it was: Joseph Michael! Christopher Francis! John Collin! I miss those days.
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