Editing Middle name (section)

{{Short description|Additional portion of a personal name}}
{{For|the first part of a double or multiple family name|Surname#Compound surnames{{!}}Compound surnames}}
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{{Original research|date=June 2015}}
{{Overly detailed|date=June 2021}}
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[[Image:FML names-2.png|thumb|300px|First/given, middle, and last/family/surname diagram with [[John F. Kennedy|John Fitzgerald Kennedy]] as example. This shows a structure typical for English-speaking cultures (and some others). Other cultures use other structures for full names.]]

In various cultures, a '''middle name''' is a portion of a [[personal name]] that is written between a person's [[given name]] and [[surname]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/middle%20name |title=Middle name |work=Merriam-Webster Dictionary}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John M. |last=Carroll |title= Confidential Information Sources: Public and Private |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_BiLBQAAQBAJ&q=is+middle+name+part+of+given+name&pg=PA351 |page=351 |publisher=Elsevier |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-08-094364-0}}</ref>
A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called '''middle initial''' or just '''initial'''.

A person may be given a middle name regardless of whether it is necessary to distinguish them from other people with the same given name and surname. In cultures where a given name is expected to precede the surname, additional names are likely to be placed after the given name and before the surname,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/381383/middle-name |title=Middle name (language) |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> and thus called middle names.