[cgore]

Something similar used to be common with the english too. My great-great-great-great grandfather was "Thomas Tindall Gore", and Tindall was his mother's maiden name. This sort of thing was quite common all throughout the 1700's and 1800's, but seems to have went out of style in the last hundred years or so.

[akavi]

I actually assumed, well into my teenage years, that people's middle names were their mother's maiden name, as that's the case for me, my sister, and my cousins.

[cgore]

Another interesting one I would see a lot is <mother's father's name> <father's father's name> <last name>.

For example, My dad was Charles Marvin Gore. His mother's father was Charles Maltbie. His father's father was Marvin Gore.

I don't think I ever saw the two modes combined though, so no example of a Charles Marvin Maltbie Gore. Although that is just in my family. It might have happened in others.