Nicknames in Edwardian Age

[Ben Lemmon]

I'm glad someone decided to wind up the jack-in-the-box. Anyway, I have another question for names. I know that middle names were commonplace in the world of etiquette when referring to someone. I just have to look at the Titanic survivor and victims list to see that. However, what I want to know is if it was commonplace for brothers to have the same middle name. I know of one example, which is J.M. Barrie's youthful friends who all had the same middle name of Llewelyn. Were they the exception or part of the clique by giving their children the same middle names? Also, how many names did parents give their children? I think that sometimes after the mother was married, she used her name as a sort of middle name, like Meredith Anne Bishop Terry, or something similar, like Meredith Anne Terry (nee Bishop). Anyway, I'm rambling. I would just like an answer to the question, if anyone could spare the time. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Try this article in Wikipedia for an American perspective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_name

In Britain we may or may not have middle names (my grandmother had two, my grandfather none, I have one) but we rarely use them except in formal documents. So it's easy for us Brits on ET to detect that Michael H Standart and Mark Robert Hopkins, for instance, are probably Americans! We do, however, generally reduce both the first and middle names to initials for brevity in our signatures, so 'J M Barrie' sounds typically British but 'James M Barrie' would more likely be American. Writers often use initials rather than full names for various reasons, one being to conceal their gender. Joanne Rowling, for instance, became J K Rowling because her publisher thought her books would sell better to the target audience of young males if it was assumed they were written by a man. The 'K' was an invention, as she had no middle name.
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[Bob Godfrey]

'Double-barelled' surnames, sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not, are quite common in the upper levels of British society, Ben. The boys associated with J M Barrie were of the Llewelyn Davies family. In other words, Llewelyn was part of their surname, not a middle name.

 

[Ben Lemmon]

Thanks for responding, Bob. So what you are saying was that it wasn't common practice to give sons the same middle name? It doesn't look like a foreign concept, but has it been done?

If my book ever got published, do you think that I should use a pseudonym or my actual name? I don't really think that I could use my first and middle initials because it would be B.D. Lemmon. That just doesn't work. I don't think I would use my last name for one reason. I do like my last name, but I think that it might be harder for someone to take the book seriously. I could use my family's former last name, Terry. However, that is the last name of the characters in my novel. Talk about conceited.

 

[Emma Richardson]

Hi

Sometimes children - especially boys - were given their Mother's maiden name as a middle name.

Em

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Take it by stages, Ben. First write the book.

 

[Marilyn Lena Penner]

Emma Richardson wrote: Sometimes children - especially boys - were given their Mother's maiden name as a middle name.

Marilyn replies: Or their father's. The late Duchess of Windsor was named Bessie Wallis (or Bessiewallis) Warfield. The 'Wallis' was her father's middle name : Teackle Wallis Warfield. She was born in 1895 or 1896, so she between 15 and 17 at the time of the sinking