“Is it just me or does literally every girl have the middle name Louise? Trying to figure this out.”
This was the title of a post written by The Tab‘s Roisin Lanigan last weekend, which has already been shared thousands of times.
“There is one constant in life and it’s that every girl you know has the middle name Louise,” she wrote.
“The middle name Louise transcends all differences which divide us as women.”
Okay, so Lanigan is talking about the UK, and she is exaggerating slightly. But there’s some truth to what she’s saying. Louise is a ridiculously common middle name in Australia too. Why is that? What’s so special about Louise?
Well, I’m a former names researcher and I can answer that question for you.
