Middle name

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In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between a person's given name and surname.^[1][2] 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,^[3] and thus called middle names.