Family Names

[carras]

While tacing family trees I have noticed that most children pre-1950 had a middle name which was the surname of a grandparent or other ancestor.

Was this a tradition?

[dotjhawkes]

It was in many families, my own father had his maternal grandmother's surname as his middle name, which was Spencer. This was often not just a mark of respect and acknowledgement to the family, it was also a long standing tradition to keep reusing certain surnames as Christian names and this is sometimes a good clue when researching.

[Chessman]

Actually, I believe this still goes on, I have a middle name, and so do most of the people I know, but whereas in the past, most middle names were after a family member, deceased or otherwise, today they are most likely to be named after someone famous, and occasionally, someone has been named after a complete football team.

[Haggisdj]

My surname is Howard. When my brother's boy was born his partner, a Take That fanatic, wanted to call him Mark Gary Joson Robbie Howard. My brother went down on his own and registered him as Mark Christopher Cantona Howard...

[Proteus]

All the male descendants of my paternal grandparents bear my grandmother's maiden name, usually as a third forename. I was born in the 1940's, and my father's generation was born just before WW1. So it was certainly a tradition in my family. Some of my contemporaries carry a second name from the same or similar origin. So, if not an out-and-out tradition, it was certainly a regular feature pre-1950.

Dare I also suggest it was both more sensible and more useful than the current trend to name children for a short-lived celebrity?