Why do some Brits have so many names? For instance,

[raccoon]

Peter Noone is Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone, and
Hayley Mills is Hayley Rose Catherine Vivian Mills?
Peter Townshend is Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend.

[Siwsan]

1. Hmm. Hadn't noticed that, but then I have 5 names, too.

Named after my 2 grandmothers, a saint, a queen and then my surname.

[Goonch]

2. you can take this too far,

as the parents of Paula St. John Lawrence Lawler Byrne Strong Yeats Stevenson Callaghan Hunt Milne Smith Thompson Shankley Bennett Paisley O’Sullivan definitely did in 1966, when they gave their daughter the surnames of the entire 1963-4 Liverpool football team—plus their manager and trainers—as middle names.

[Sanity Claws]

3. Haha

Can you imagine if they had picked a team from a country with a different language?

[Harker]

4. It's not uncommon in some Hispanic cultures, too...

to pile on saints and relatives.

Better that than leave someone out!

[abqtommy]

5. It goes far beyond the Brits. My Canadian grandson has 4 given names and a double last

name with no hyphen. He's the product of a mixed ethnic and gender relationship. It's just part
of the wonderful diversity that makes up The Human Race.

[Chainfire]

6. My family could only afford three names

But I was better off than one of my class mates who's legal first two names were C. W. The name must have caused him grief on every form he ever had to fill out.

[Harker]

7. Was he a Moss...

or a Post?

[Chainfire]

11. This was when Moses and I were in elementary school

but I seem to remember his surname as Hansford.

[Harker]

12. It's an elegant name

but I get what you mean about the difficulty it would cause.

I'm sympathetic - I've had to say, "two RS and all Es" for my first name, and, "no E" for my last name for my entire life.

[lastlib]

10. Reminds me of the old Army joke.......

New recruit, R.B. Jones (no names, just the initials), fills out his induction forms, R(only) B(only) Jones. His dog tags come back with "Ronly Bonly Jones" ---

[Ron Obvious]

8. I grew up in a poor working class family

We couldn't even afford middle names, leaving me with an asterisk on my driving license.

[csziggy]

17. On Mom's original birth certificate, she had no first name, just "unamed female child"

She was called Freddie all her life, though. Not short for anything, just Freddie. Her brothers had proper first and middle names, as did her parents. I wish I knew the story behind my grandparents not having a name for their first child and only daughter.

[Skittles]

19. in the military it was NMI for no middle initial

giving them three middle initials

[geomon666]

9. I'm still trying to figure out why they call cookies 'biscuits'.

That's just wrong.

[raccoon]

13. I know. I asked a Brit once, "well, what would you call what Americans call a biscuit?"

He said he supposed you’d call it a roll.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. Like Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Ol-Biscuitbarrel?

Or Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Blackpool Rock Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable Brrroooo Norman Michael (rings bell) (blows whistle) Edward (sounds car horn) (does train impersonation) (sounds buzzer) Thomas Moo... (sings) "We'll keep a welcome in the..." (fires gun) William (sound of Whoopee whistle) "Raindrops keep falling on my" (weird noise) "Don't sleep in the subway" (cuckoo cuckoo) Naaoooo... Smith ?

[Mendocino]

15. Upper Class Twit of the Year

[link:

|

[sarge43]

16. "....and his mother won the Derby."

And his mother was a jockey?
.
.
.

Never mind

[Skittles]

18. Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien

AKA "Dusty Springfield"