WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Where Did Middle Names Come From? 

0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:24.560
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi

0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.600
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren fog Obam here with another classic episode

0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.240
<v Speaker 1>for you today. Today's question is what's in a name?

0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:36.680
<v Speaker 1>A middle name? To be precise, Hey, brain Stuff, Luren

0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.680
<v Speaker 1>fog Obam here. Few things perplexed expectant parents more than

0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.320
<v Speaker 1>picking just the right name for their child. And the

0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.560
<v Speaker 1>middle name is no exception. It must have both gravitas

0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.400
<v Speaker 1>and joy to vieve and set the tone for a

0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.080
<v Speaker 1>lifetime of repetition on official forms. But what's in a

0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:56.120
<v Speaker 1>middle name? Anyway? In ancient Rome, people often had five names.

0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.400
<v Speaker 1>The first three were like today's modern surname, middle name,

0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.840
<v Speaker 1>and last name. The last two names usually revealed the

0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.720
<v Speaker 1>person's place or clan of origin. The modern tradition of

0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.480
<v Speaker 1>inserting a middle name or two into a child's moniker

0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.520
<v Speaker 1>most likely began in the Middle Ages, when parents gave

0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.440
<v Speaker 1>babies a personalized first name and a saints name for

0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.520
<v Speaker 1>middle name, followed by a surname. By the mid eighteen hundreds,

0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.720
<v Speaker 1>this European habit had entered the United States, brought along

0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.480
<v Speaker 1>by immigrants, and began to take on new significance. Middle

0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.800
<v Speaker 1>Names inspired by saints were sometimes replaced by non religious

0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.200
<v Speaker 1>middle names, such as a maternal maiden name. By the

0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.040
<v Speaker 1>time the Civil War began in eighteen sixty one, middle

0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.240
<v Speaker 1>names were given purely at the parents discretion. Any name

0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.319
<v Speaker 1>of their liking was fair game, and were often aspirational

0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.959
<v Speaker 1>in nature, with two or three middle names given. After all,

0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.600
<v Speaker 1>a hypothetical name of Peter Aurelius Oliver Smith carries a

0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.800
<v Speaker 1>little bit more weight than plain old Pete Smith, doesn't it.

0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.280
<v Speaker 1>The idea of a middle name took hold in the

0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.920
<v Speaker 1>United States, and by the start of World War Two

0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.440
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen fourteen, official in sprint forms became the first

0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.440
<v Speaker 1>government documents to request applicants middle names. Middle names were

0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.360
<v Speaker 1>so much the norm that when computers became routinely used

0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:12.600
<v Speaker 1>for US citizenship documents, they were programmed to recognize three names,

0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:16.440
<v Speaker 1>not two or four, only three. If a middle name

0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.600
<v Speaker 1>wasn't entered, the program would automatically insert n m I,

0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:28.880
<v Speaker 1>which was a military abbreviation for no middle initial. Today's

0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.720
<v Speaker 1>episode was originally produced by Tristan McNeil and is based

0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:33.920
<v Speaker 1>on the article why do we have middle Names? On

0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.320
<v Speaker 1>how Stuff Works dot Com written by Laurie L. D.

0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.440
<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio in partnership

0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.480
<v Speaker 1>with how stuff Works dot Com and is produced by

0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.639
<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clay. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the

0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.440
<v Speaker 1>iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or ever you listen to

0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:48.320
<v Speaker 1>your favorite shows.