What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

If you ask my family…..

It’s Marie.

My mother gave it to me at my baptism one month after my birth. Why? Because she wasn’t planning to give me one. Back in the day, it was a “ catholic rule” to give middle names if the child was not named after a saint or derived from a saint’s name. Elyse is derived from Elizabeth; a saint. She explained that to the pastor. He said I still needed a middle name. And so, she said Marie.

Forty years later…..

I’m renewing my driver’s license. At this point, the Patriot Act was in effect and you needed all sorts of ID . The manager at the DMV said my application did not match my birth certificate. I wrote Marie as my middle name, but it was not on my birth certificate. With that said, I could not have Marie on my DL.

Ok fine, go without it. But she said I need three names ( this is just in case someone else in the world has the same name **). She said in cases like this, use your maiden name as your middle name.

So to the government and my present medical records, my maiden name is my middle name 🙃

** BTW, I found it funny they would think there’s another person with my name. If you know my last name, there’s only 10 of us in the entire country** 😆