Editing Given name (section)

==Compound==
{{See also|Surname#Compound surnames{{!}}Compound surname|Double-barrelled name{{!}}Double surname}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Double name|Dual naming{{!}}Double place naming|Tautonym|Reduplication}}

In many [[Western culture]]s, people often have multiple given names. Most often the first one in sequence is the one that a person goes by, although exceptions are not uncommon, such as in the cases of [[John Edgar Hoover]] (J. Edgar) and [[Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland]] (Barbara).
The given name might also be used in compound form, as in, for example, [[John Paul (given name)|John Paul]] or a hyphenated style like [[Bengt-Arne Wallin|Bengt-Arne]]. A [[middle name]] might be part of a compound given name or might be, instead, a [[maiden name]], a [[patronymic]], or a [[baptismal name]].

[[File:Alexander Graham Bell (signature).svg|thumb|252px|right|The signature of [[Alexander Graham Bell]].]]

In England, it was unusual for a person to have more than one given name until the seventeenth century when Charles James Stuart ([[Charles I of England|King Charles I]]) was baptised with two names. That was a French fashion, which spread to the English aristocracy, following the royal example, then spread to the general population and became common by the end of the eighteenth century.<ref name=Coates>{{citation |chapter=Onomastics |pages=346–347 |first=Richard |last=Coates |title=The Cambridge History of the English Language |volume=4 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1992 |isbn=9780521264778}}</ref>

Some double-given names for women were used at the start of the eighteenth century but were used together as a unit: Anna Maria, Mary Anne and Sarah Jane. Those became stereotyped as the typical names of servants and so became unfashionable in the nineteenth century.

Double names remain popular in the [[Southern United States]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 October 2022 |title=How The Double-Name Trend Started And Stayed In The South|url=https://www.southernliving.com/culture/double-names-souther-tradition |access-date=19 September 2023 |website=Southern Living}}</ref>

Double names are also common among [[Vietnamese names]] to make repeated name in the family. For example, Đặng Vũ Minh Anh and Đặng Vũ Minh Ánh, are two sisters with the given names Minh Anh and Minh Ánh.

===Initials===<!-- The hat note of [[Initial]] links to this section name -->
Sometimes, a given name is used as just an initial, especially in combination with the middle initial (such as with [[H. G. Wells]]), and more rarely as an initial while the middle name is not one (such as with [[L. Ron Hubbard]]).