First/given, middle, and last/family/surname diagram with John Fitzgerald Kennedy as example. This shows a structure typical for English-speaking cultures (and some others). Other cultures use other structures for full names.
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.
