Surname used as a middle name

[Sames]

Has anyone ever come across family members they are researching that have a surname as their middle name that they have no idea where it came from? I have come across a few that have just stumped me?!? Have no idea where the surname came from? Two are the youngest children and the other one is the oldest and appears to be the only child which seems hard to believe. I have searched and re-searched and have come up empty handed! I was wondering; was it common for the youngest child to have a surname as a middle name? Just curious if anyone has come across this when searching Scottish ancestors. Thanks

[CaroleW]

Yes - but mine were English not Scottish.   I have 2 females on my fathers side.  One b 1864 had the middle name of Bullock & the other b 1871 had McDonald.  Absolutely no connection to the FH so were presumably close friends or neighbours

My paternal grandfather (1877)  & later my brother (1933) were given the middle name of Gilchrist but I know where that came from

[GR2]

Middle names are quite rare in Scotland until the 19th and 20th centuries. Most are family members, but others can be friends, neighbours, employers, the minister, the schoolmaster, doctor etc. Later on you find celebrities' names (lots of Hector MacDonalds after the general, for example).

[Kiltpin]

Yes, I have a Brunton that appeared from nowhere. It was not till I read the father's collected papers that I found that General Brunton sponsored the father in the Honourable East India Company. 

Regards 

Chas

[coombs]

In Essex in the 1700s and 1800s I have found several surname sounding middle names in my tree such as Margaret Robjent Boosey. Her aunty had married a Robjent. I also have a Mary Newman Smith who wed in 1780 in Foulness. Not yet found her baptism or family.

[Rena]

I have both Scottish and English families with middle surnames.  Sometimes the middle surname belonged to a family member of an earlier generation and sometimes the middle names are the full given and surname of a benefactor, or doctor, etc.

[carol8353]

None of my mum's family have middle names,apart from her older brother,who apparently was such a difficult birth that he was given the doctor who delivered him's first name as his middle one.

[Chris Doran]

As well as surnames of people in the news, names associated with events could be used. I heard of a lady whose middle name was Ladysmith (after the battle). She kept this very quiet as it betrayed the year she was born 

[gaffy]

Far from unusual in the northern counties of Ireland and where not the mother's maiden name, often the source is lost in the mists of time, as records just don't go back far enough to provide an answer. For the parents naming a child back in the day, it's not too great a leap to surmise that a 'surname' middle name might even hail back to their grandparents.