Hi, This middle name thing has always puzzled us too! We have several relatives, of Argyll origins, who suddenly had middle names, where none existed before. George MCMILLAN (1856 - 1830) was George Hamilton MCMILLAN by the end of his life. (Of course his mother was a HAMILTON & he did have a son also named George, so we can see the reasoning behind taking this middle name.) Donald MCKINNON (1884 - 1964), always known as "Dan" to family, evolved to Donald James Paterson MCKINNON, but this evolved to an entirely new surname & he was eventually Donald James PATERSON-MCKINNON! (His mother was a PATERSON, but no Jameses in the family, as far as we can find. And he never married nor had a namesake son.) Both men immigrated - 1 to USA & 1 to Canada. I understand that there may have been other men of the same name in the area, but it just seems that adding a new middle name was no big deal years ago. These days, it's an issue of legality & identity, so it seems odd to us. Another factor for us to consider when searching for these elusive ancestors of our's! Mary in Canada