How inconvenient is having four names?

[Anonymous]

It has never been a problem for me and I travel a lot.

-person w 4 names

[Anonymous]

A good friend of mine has seven names. It's kinda hilarious but she has never had any real issues. Works for a gov agency (i was about to say which but realized I was probably outing her).

[Anonymous]

In your situation you should do the 4 names. It is important to keep the birth name, and your other kids all have your last name as a middle name. So you really need both.

Congratulations on your adoption!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In your situation you should do the 4 names. It is important to keep the birth name, and your other kids all have your last name as a middle name. So you really need both.

Congratulations on your adoption!

Thank you! DH finally agreed to 4, I wore him down. Glad it’s not too inconvenient.

[Anonymous]

I have four names and kept my maiden name. It was not an issue growing up. My kids also have four names.

[Anonymous]

2 middle names are fine
I would skip using a last name as second name, let all 3 names be real names
Glenda Lisa Ava Jones

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think the problem is going to be on identification, where everything needs to match exactly if you want to get on a plane, etc.

It's not a problem.

Because you don’t work for the state department. Yes it can be a problem.

I have a sense this isn’t an adoption. Birth name i’m guessing op meant by family tradition name b/c she said dh doesn’t care. To me meant all boys in a family are named larlo.

So it will be a problem if you work for the state department? Because many of us with 4 names have said it’s not a problem. And yes, OP has stated that the birth name is due to an adoption, so keeping that name is important, IMO, and trumps the slight inconvenience of when 4 names is an issue.

This has to be a joke. The state department hires tons of people with all sorts of names with accents that don’t exist in the English language. There are tons of people with 4 names (and even more!) There are people with super long last names that don’t fit on the allotted space. Somehow all of those people have no problems traveling all over the world, using at least 2 different passports and getting local IDs in dozens of countries.

If you’ve never had a passport and left the country, I could see how maybe it would be difficult to comprehend that there’s a big world out there. Most of the billions of people in this world do not adhere to the old school American tradition of first middle last name. Shocking, but true. 4 names is not a big deal at all. Zero issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think the problem is going to be on identification, where everything needs to match exactly if you want to get on a plane, etc.

This is the take away point, op.

It’s not the number of names. It’s consistency of what legal documentation says for voting, driver’s license, booking travel, passport. Make sure your kid at some point understands this.

Congratulations on the baby!

[Anonymous]

My friend gave her daughter four names. The second middle name is never used. I actually had to think for five minutes before I responded to see if I could even remember what it was. I guess it's symbolic but it seems silly because it's like it doesn't exist.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on the baby!

I was always called by my middle name and really didn't like being referred to by my first name (which all computerized records referred to me as), so I had my name legally changed when I was a young adult. I'd suggest making sure that the first name is the one that the child will go by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations on the baby!

I was always called by my middle name and really didn't like being referred to by my first name (which all computerized records referred to me as), so I had my name legally changed when I was a young adult. I'd suggest making sure that the first name is the one that the child will go by.

We can’t be 100% sure but hope they’ll want to go by their new name. Although we are fine with them going by the birth name, which is why we’re including it just in case, so they don’t have to do a name change (although in your case you did it anyway).