initialen

Dutch companies often have a field on their forms, between the first name and last name field, which they refer to as ‘initials’, which can confuse English speakers, as ‘initials’ usually means all of the first letters, not just any middle initials.

For example, I ran into this text today:

Vul minimaal onderstaande gegevens in:

• Voornaam
• Initialen
• Achternaam
• Geboortedatum
• Taal
• Gender
• Telefoonnummer
• E-mailadres
• Nationaliteit

I'd make this:

Please fill in at least the information below:

• First name
• Middle initials
• Last name
• Date of birth
• Language
• Gender
• Phone number
• Email address
• Nationality

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Translating this as ‘Initials’ instead of ‘Middle initials’ would be confusing.