The significance of Middle names

[GrahamSimons]

My great-grandfather named several of his children for ancestors, showing some pretty thorough genealogical research.

William Vazie Langdale Simons - named for his grandmother Mary Rebecca Langdale and his great-grandmother Hannah Vazie;
Emma Scobell Simons - named for her 7-great grandmother Mary Scobell;
Alice Maud Moncure Simons - named for her great-grandmother Isabella Moncure;
Katherine Ellen Evelyn Simons - named for her great-grandmother Ann Evelyn;
Blanche Edith Selwyn Simons - for a long line of cousins;
Frederic Dyke Sydney Simons - for his aunt's husband Thomas Jones Dyke - that marriage was childless;

And then Robert John Richard Cobden Simons, born on the day Richard Cobden died and named for him in admiration of his politics.

[lizdb]

Just taking advantage of the topic to again float the puzzle of my greatuncle's middle name:
Espar or Esper.
It means nothing to us at all. No other use of the name,not a place.
Noone to ask as that generation are all long gone.
Any ideas?
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Keep researching - eventually you may find a link. Or you may not. Maybe they just liked he word for some reason.

[KGarrad]

Just taking advantage of the topic to again float the puzzle of my greatuncle's middle name:
Espar or Esper.
It means nothing to us at all. No other use of the name,not a place.
Noone to ask as that generation are all long gone.
Any ideas?

Esper is apparently German?
North German and Danish: variant of Jesper, Low German and Danish form of Kaspar.

[jacquelineve]

I'm almost certain that my illigitimate g.grandfathers second christian name "Evan" is the surname
of his father.His mother had 4 children but never wed, her 2nd child , a daughter was named "Eva"
a third daughter,the last to marry, must have been told by then, as she wed using the surname
Evans.
          I've seen a likely canditate living close by in census, but.....

Jackie

[Yasmina4]

Or a godparent, who might also have been a relative and perhaps a wealthy single one at that! 

Nell

Yes , my embarrassing middle name when I was growing up was Emily.  Its quite fashionable now.Was taken from an elderly spinster aunt with money.  Sandra

[bykerlads]

Thanks Kgarrad for the suggestion of a German- type link.
I'll look into it. No non-brit connections in the family but one can't rule out the parents having encountered someone from abroad visiting the area ( West Yorks- I know there were many foreigners in the area in connection with the textile industry at the time, late 1800's/early 1900's.)

[jael438]

Did not make my searching easier until I realised that all the men were known by there midlle names! my Uncle Morris was Brian Morris, his son (my cousin) was known as Brian, but his name was Morris Brian.  Hard for a green researcher!!
In one case I could not find my Uncle Arnold his first name was John!!!    

cheers
John (not saying my middle name)

[bykerlads]

On the plus side, I've found that ancestors with middle names are much easier to trace.
Eg: quite few Sarah Armitages in my village in the mid1800's but only one Sarah A(nne) Armitage.
Also, my husband's family clung determinedly to Eliza Mary + Herbert Edward as names throughout several generations.
My father however avoided giving us middle names - too "fancy"- "how many names do you need, lass?"

[mumjo]

I've been looking into my son in law's family for him. His great grandmother's siblings all had middle names. I had quite a lot of trouble finding her so asked what her brothers and sisters were called also parents.
It turned out both her parents used their middle names and every sibling used an abbreviated name ie Bert for Albert. I'd already looked at that record and dismissed it because the parents names weren't correct.