You mentioned flow and I think 2 middle names is cool if they roll nicely around the tongue. I'd think you'd want to avoid a ton of clunky syllables but who cares if there's an extra word or 2? My daughter's name is the first line of a haiku.

But I can't escape being aware of the obvious fact that it doesn't matter what I think. Hi. Good morning.

he thinks two middle names is pretentious eh, well tell him that i have 4 and both of my brothers have 5. my driver's license takes 3 lines to write my name...oh yes it does. :P

my kids will most definitely, unequivocally have 2--after my family 1 doesn't even seem like a whole name anymore, lol.

I have two middle names, and it's kind of a pain because my various records have different middle names due to space limitations.  I've gotten my taxes returned for not filling out the correct middle name :-P

Ooooooo can there be another competition to guess the middle name? Please pretty please? Actually, I don't need the motivation of an actual prize, it's so much fun to guess anyway. So I'm going ahead and guessing it's Luella.

More importantly, congratulations on having already chosen your daughter's full name - I know how stressful it is! I remember looking through so many books and websites when I was pregnant for the second time and none of the names did anything for me. I was absolutely sure that we were never ever going to find anything cool. And a name is such a fundamental thing somehow. So I'm happy for you that you're happy with her name!

My husband not only has two middle names, but they had to go and tack on a name during his communion. That's right-he has three middle names, and do you know what is pathetic about it?--he isn't sure which order they are supposed to be. They are all over the place. I just had to put them together in the best flow.

My daughter has two, one is a pretty one and the other is my maiden name (my husband uses it, too, so we're all non-hyphenated two last names but not really people).  In France it's de rigeur--but they are both grandmothers' names (or grandfathers, in the case of a boy).  Sweet, but Rowan Jean Judeen didn't sound too good to me.  (Or Rowan Ronald Richard if she was a boy. Yuck!)

We argued on names for her longer than for our plates at our wedding (and he fought me for 4 months on those!!! No wonder people used to think he just might be gay...)

I gave my son 3 middle names... it was supposed to be just two the names of my paternal and maternal grand-fathers (because he gets my husbands last name) So we had his name set on Wilhelm Kenneth Sanfrid but then at the hospital he was so strong that we called him Samson so we added it in there so now it's Wilhelm Samson Kenneth Sanfrid. I have 2 middle names myself and had hyphenated last names on top of that so I grew up with lots of names so I think it'll be fine for my son too.

I love your blog by the way and Archer is such a cool name I'm sure you picked something equally awesome for your little girl.

OMG I don't even have kids yet and my hub and I have already had multiple severe arguments about this.  I (hesitantly) took his last name and just added it on to mine, and it has caused me nothing but grief getting driver's licenses, etc.  "What do you mean you have TWO middle names?" is what I hear all the time.  Nevertheless, my maiden name is very unique and rare and meaningful, and I want my future kids to have it!  I pulled that same card you did - either they have my maiden name in the middle (it can be their ONLY middle name or they can have two, hell, I don't care) or they can have my middle name as their last name!  He got really mad about that one.  We worked it out, though, and it sounds like you guys did too!  

I'll shut up now, this just made me laugh.

See! I love the multiple middle names. I think it's classic and regal and interesting -- especially if each name has significant meaning. Oh, well. I'll be living vicariously through all you multiple-namers.

I was born without a middle name, so your new girl could have mine :)

My sis-in-law gave my nephew a second middle name, Martin, because he was born on Martin Luther King Day. I thought that was pretty cool.

We gave our son two middle names, the first names of his paternal great-grandfathers. Expecting our 2nd in a few months, we're planning on giving this child two middle names as well. If it's another boy, we'll give him his maternal great-grandfathers' names. If it's a girl, we're sure we're going to give her two middle names, we just don't know which ones since this is our last child.

I hope it's Salome.

Whatever you choose to do is great, but our experience with two middle names is that it's a huge pain in the neck.  Hubby has two middle names (his father's first name and his mother's maiden name) and just loathes it.  Forms are always difficult, and since his names are family names, he always felt as a child that he was taking sides against one side of his family when he could only use one for many official forms, registrations, etc.  Monogrammed stuff is impossible (not that we're fans of monogramming, but when he gets things as gifts they always exclude one initial).  He hates the four initials when he initials things, but still isn't sure which name to ditch or whether he should.  People think he's completely pretentious if he uses the four names.  Even to this day he gets teased about having four names.  

I certainly wouldn't tell anyone not to do it, but husband was adamant that we have only three names for our child.  Just be aware of the complications if you end up deciding to go the four name route.  

man my little girl is coming in 5 short week and we still have not settled on a name.  we have the final two first names but my husband refuses to make a decisions...as for the middle name we have 5 possible ones...ugh!

I think it's soooo cool to have two middle names, but I am kind of ruled by practicality in the naming department.  I have spent most of my adult life working with computerized databases, and two middle names (or two non-hyphenated last names, or last names with abbreviations -St. Cyr, St. Martin) are a huge pain in the ass - verifying and looking up anything is an issue, and you don't want issues with social security or health insurances.

doesn't it suck that even has to be a consideration?  i mean some people don't care, and more power to them, but i do.

on another note, good for you for being able to be so reasonable and fair to Hal.  especially while pregnant - i was a crappy mean short-tempered pregnant person, so i admire that in you.

I lost that battle.  Dude, I tried to add anther name a month AFTER she was born and ex-boy wanted to have me committed.  Im a total  quatro-name fan.

This is totally irrelevant, but I know a woman named Miller. And she kicks ass. I'm just sayin'.....

My boyfriend has 2 middle names: Jacob & Clyde. I love Jacob, but I have to wonder what his mom was thinking with Clyde! Usually he just uses Jacob on most documents. I think it gives a degree of choice!

But my kids will probably only have 1 middle name each. We have a short last name (Snow), so I don't want to smother them in words. ;)

My guess is that you are going to name her Colette Mirabelle. I know that's the name you had picked for Archer, and it is totally not on your list of not-picked names! It's just a shot but I hope I'm totally blowing up your spot here! They are all awesome names, by the way.

Our daughter has 2 middle names plus a hyphenated last name.  It's hella long!  Her middle names are her birth parents' last names (she's our daughter through adoption), so although her name is long, it's meaningful.  We've gotten a few odd comments about the length of her name, but what really bothers people is that her first middle name is a relatively common boy name (think "James" or "Harvey").  I happen to like it--strangely, her birth mom's last name was our first choice for a boy's first name--but lots of folks object to her having a "boy name" as one of her middle names.    

My youngest has two middle names after his grandfathers since neither name suited a kid and we wanted both in there.  Plus we knew he was the last kid so we had to squeeze it in!  :)

I honestly don't know how I will wait to find out her names!

My best friend has two middle names. I have none. Guess who's happier with their name? Hint: it isn't me.

I'm rooting for Paisley.

Well my daughter was three first names, one of which got tacked on the day of her birth (that I was secretly hoping it would and I used my horrible state to get it in and it turned out to not even be an issue with my husband . . .my mother in law though, that's a whole other story.  Just looked at your top list and I'm hoping that it's Salome.  Always loved that name.

Oy! I got so frustrated with the compromise game in naming both of my babies, and I honestly still hold a bit of resentment that I didn't get to name my daughter Willow or Paisley (love it!) and my son Felix or Ozzy, for dumb reasons that my husband couldn't get over. And you can not talk a man into a name he doesn't like. It just doesn't work. And believe me, I campaigned heavily for all of those names.

P.S. I love all your names.

I'm pretty sure I have both names nailed down. Do I win a prize if I guess correctly? (Don't want to share them here and ruin your suprise; that's how sure I am that I'm right!)

Forget the name thing- how totally mature of you to admit to your bullying and for you and H. to resolve the whole situation. I'm impressed.

My son has two middle names and each name came to us in such a divine way, I just have to share our story.  His first name came to us after my husband brought it up and I asked myself for some kind of sign that was the name our baby wanted.  The next day I saw the name online while I was shopping. (it was the name of a chair).  Then a client came into our lives with the name, as well as all these dove symbols.  (the name means dove in Hebrew) So right then and there I knew I was having a boy and that was to be his first name.  The middle name was harder, or the signs were not that apparent.  It was a toss up between Aydan and Dylan.  My son was born 10/21/07 the day of the great San Diego fires.  Aydan means little fire in gaelic.  Well, we got our sign!  We ended up using both names as it balanced his whole name out and just flowed nicely.  But how's that for a middle name story!

Aw, that's an awesome story. Love name stories. Thanks for sharing!

Axel has two middle names, but one of them is my last name.  He's got my husband's last name.  I figured that, since Axel has his dad's, I should at least get to give him give him two middle names.  I am a name junkie, and I think Sean just got really really tired of all the hormonal pregnant lady pestering and so he gave in.  

I have two middle names O_o

Louise Catherine Anaïs... though I go by "Catherine" only, and my cards and papers are to Catherine, not Louise. I don't know how that happened...

I'm glad I found these comments because it's the only place on the net where I have heard the down side to two middle names and the only place where I have seen a comment about two middle names coming out of an adoption situation.  We also have adopted and want to give two middle names to honor the birth mother's wishes and to give something of ours to our son (my husband's name). My husband is against it, so we will see...but thanks for the comments. They will help me decide what I can live with. I wish we could just leave it up to our son, but if we asked him (he's only 3 months old) his middle name would be something like Aaaagaagee (high pitched whale like squealing noise at the end), and I know that one would be a pain to try and live with (-: