Monday, February 16, 2009

Middle Names

Middle names are used completely differently in America - or rather, they are used on a daily basis rather than merely adorning your birth certificate. As a result, my daughter is routinely called "Anna Marie" by her teachers, and regularly has to explain that she only ever uses her first name. 

Things get more complicated if you have more than one middle name. In this case, the second and subsequent middle names are usually abbreviated for "daily" use, although bearers of just one middle name may abbreviate it anyway (e.g. George W. Bush) for clarity's sake.

Because people use either their middle names or abbreviations thereof whenever referring to themselves, they also do so on application forms. However, being New World newbies, we did not know this, so when we opened a bank account, my wife duly listed her three middle names as directed. Unfortunately, this meant that she was issued with the following card, on which the first and middle names took up so much space that there wasn't enough room for them all - let alone the surname!


Needless to say, as someone with a three-letter first name and no middle name whatsoever, I did not have the same problem.

No comments: