I wouldn't do it because I enjoy the challenge of coming up with a first/middle/last.  

If your first child has a middle name, I would be hesitant to skip the middle name for this one.  They might not care, but I would've been really bothered to have been the only one without a middle name.  

Knowing how important family honor names are to your husband, I would also be nervous about this approach.  If there is no middle name, would he want to move the honor name to the 1st position?  If so, you could be opening yourself up to even more name hassle.

I like middle names and I know someone who didn't have a middle name growing up and always wanted one. She ended up choosing a middle name for herself, which is always an option. But you may get questions like her parents did about why she didn't get a middle name like all her friends (and like her younger brothers). In my friend's case, it was because the assumption was that she'd use her maiden name as her middle name when she married (she's single and plans to keep her last name if she ever marries anyway).

I grew up without a middle name, and always kinda missed having one. I put my maiden name in the middle spot when I got married, twelve years ago, but it hasn't made nearly as much of a difference as I thought it would. This may partly be because the dratted hyphen in my husband's family name has overshadowed the middle name... But my sister still doesn't have a middle name, and she manages just fine. So in practical terms, you don't actually _need_ a middle name.

That said, if you already have a child with a middle name, I'd try to find one for this child as well -- she'll probably feel cheated otherwise.

I don't care for my middle name and wished I had changed it when I got married.  My sister who had a lovely middle name (Catherine) dropped it in favor of our maiden name, but I didn't like our maiden name either.  I sometimes wish I didn't have one.  My mother also rarely uses her middle name.  I do wonder about filling out forms and other bureaucratic hassels.

Neither of my sisters-in-law has a middle name and both have expressed to me that they think it's lame and that it annoys them. They both gave their daughters middle names. If Elise were your first child, I'd say you could skip it, but since your older daughter has a middle name, I think you'd be setting up a problem not to give one to Elise.

My father didn't have a middle name, and neither did his brother and sisters.  I don't have a middle name, and growing up I certainly wanted one.  Now I use my maiden name in the middle.  My sister doesn't have a middle name, and she never changed her surname when she married, so she couldn't move her maiden name to the middle.  As far as I know it doesn't bother her.  My daughter-in-law doesn't have a middle name, and she's fine with that, even though her younger sister does have one.  I did give my son two names (two deceased grandfathers to be honored).  When my grandson was legally adopted earlier this month (finally!), my son and daughter-in-law did not give him a middle name, although they moved his original birth given name to the surname spot.  He was used to using it in a number of circumstances, so they didn't want to drop it altogether, and they didn't want to give him either his father's surname or his mother's nor retain his birth surname.  And I was once engaged to a man who had only a middle initial.

So lots of people don't have middle names, and the sky doesn't fall--even if one sibling has one and the other doesn't.

I had a friend growing up who didn't have a middle name.  Her parents explicitly told her it was so she could have her maiden name as a middle name when she grew up and got married.

I think that's a terrible expectation to put on a child.  What if she never wants to marry, or worse, what if she wants to get married but never finds the right person?  Or what if she just wants to keep her maiden name?

My friend's brother, of course, had a middle name. :(

If you're stumped, just use your maiden name as the middle.  It's classic and meaningful, and it doesn't shortchange your second child.  No need to be picky about the flow when the name obviously was chosen for other reasons.

You can count me in the pro-middle-name camp! I'm sure that it's not absolutely necessary to have a middle name, and people get by without them, but... why ever not? Like others above, I'm bothered by the "oh, she'll just move her maiden name to the middle spot once she's married" assumption; your daughter might really resent that if she makes different choices down the line. Otherwise, it seems you're just stuck with the "it was too much work to think of something that fit," which I doubt would go over well with your daughter when she starts asking (especially since her sister has one). I think picking a middle that isn't perfect is better than none at all—and you have a couple of great options, so I think it's a shame to give up in defeat.

Personally, I always loved my middle name (which is one of the ones you're considering, incidentally, and my first name also starts with E)—I feel it really expands my options for how I want to present myself, and I use my middle initial whenever I can (V is an awesome middle initial, by the way—it totally livens up a name). On a resume? Elise V. Burr0ughs, or E.V. Burr0ughs. Email address? evburr0ughs@, or elise.v.burr0ughs@ (which sounds like a court case, but still cool), or as many colleges do it, evb24@ (and with three initials and v in the middle, you're likely to get a low number—mine was a low single digit—whereas with only two you'll be one of hundreds). With three initials, you can do a proper monogram. On a diploma, or an award, or even a wedding invitation? Elise Victoria Burr0ughs sounds & looks so much more elegant and dignified than just the two names. And if she ends up in a career in which she needs to set herself apart from other people with the same name, then having a middle name will be super helpful. And if for some reason she doesn't like it? Well, she doesn't have to use it if she doesn't want to, and/or it's no more difficult to legally change a middle name than to add one that doesn't exist in the first place. 

I also think Barbara is a nice-sounding choice, and I like another poster's suggestion of using your maiden name if all else fails. Any of those are better options to me than no middle at all. 

My take is that just about anything as a middle name is better than none at all.  And I don't care particularly about flow.  No one has to use their middle name, and many people don't because of flow, dislike of the name, gender change of name, or because they just don't need to.

I met a guy whose middle name was Evelyn after a grandfather. He didn't use it, and most people didn't know it, but it was fun for a joke with friends, and I think he actually liked it.

I also have a friend with no middle name, and though he wanted one, choosing a name for himself felt too weird, so he never added one.

Family names, authors or characters you like, admirable people in history, character traits are all good options for middle names.  I like my middle, but I'd even rather have a clunky outdated one than none at all.  That said, I'd rather have a distinctive but hideous name than a filler name - Ann, Marie, etc just to fill the blank.

Victoria & Barbara both fit as a middle name, Victoria because it is lovely and flows, and Barbara because it holds a great deal of meaning.

thanks all! i especially enjoyed Miriams', Evie, and Thursday Next's posts.