My maternal grandmother was always known by her middle name, even when she was quite young. She always maintained that her first name, Mary, was a cow’s name (she grew up on a dairy farm).
Similarly, her father (who was a twin) was given the first and middle names, Graham Berry (named after a Premier of Victoria). He was always known as Berry. His son (and my Nanna’s brother) had the first and middle names Graham MacFarlane, and he’s always been known as Mac.
This tradition hasn’t really continued on in the generations that followed.
In our family, everyone is supposed to go by their “middle” name.
It worked for my older and younger brothers, but for whatever reason, my middle name just didn’t “stick”.
I am the only one in several generations called by his first name…and the only reason my mother could give me was that nobody liked my middle name much and kept insisting on calling me by my first name until she and my father finally gave up and joined in.
I actually like all three of my names (first, middle and last)…so it is not a big deal for me.
My maternal grandmother did all her life. I was surprised when I learned what her first name was, as I thought what turned out to be her middle name WAS her first name.
My father was a “Junior,” so when he was growing up, everyone called him by his middle name and his father by his first name. He started going by his first name after he grew up and moved away, but I still remember his brothers and sister calling him by his middle name even in adulthood.
I was born in 1941 and at that time births had to registered within 24 hours.
My uncle was at home on leave so my mother asked him to register my birth, he wandered off to the registry office stopping en-route for a few? pints.
The registrar said to him “Name?”
Uncle, being a bit pissed gave his own name.
Registrar wrote it down on birth certificate, which at the time could not be altered being wartime
Uncle then realised he meant MY name and blurted out the name my mother wanted me to be known as.
Im Firstname Middlename Lastname, go by middle name…
My middle name is the same as my greatgrandmother, who my parents wanted to name me for. My firstname is the name of my godmother, who my parents didnt want to name me for.
Somehow, Godmother (who was never in my life after the first 2 years or so) got it ito her head my name was going to be Godmothersname, Middlename Lastname. Went and got me a silver bracelet with that engraved on it. My parents went with it.
I hate my first name, not because its a bad name, but its got some problematic nicknames. Also the initials created have unplesant conotations.
Always been called by middlename. Always. Never was a problem until everything became computerized. Sometimes Im Initial Name Lastname. Sometimes Im Middlename First Initial last name. My house has to be in Firstname Middle Initial Lastname. (and Im registered as Alias Middlename Lastname…I have a registered Alias! )
I agree its a huge pain in the butt to go by the middle name. I keep thinking about changing it, but Middlename Firstname doesnt sound right. Too many vowels or something.
Now my son is named Firstname Mylastname Fatherslastname. I want to change it to Firstname (family middlename) Mylastname. But first I would have to find his dad and get a signature etc. Ick what a mess.
oh and the worst part of it is
You are in the hospital emergency room, writhing in pain and someone calls out… “Nickname of firstname”. Not Firstname Lastname, which I can remember (sometimes) but Nickname. I ignored the calls… Passed the kidneystone before I ever saw anyone… Puhleeze! If you are calling a total stranger a name, dont use the nickname, use the fullname unless you are told otherwise!
I was named after both of my Grandmother’s, and the reason I was called by my middle is we lived in the same city as Firstname while Middle lives across the country. They didn’t name me middle first because it didn’t flow (it REALLY doesn’t flow).
Even more confusing was when I lived with my Grandma, and I was at the same bank as her… which required the use of my first name. So until we convinced them to add middle initial to it, we’d open each others mail.
What really annoys me is I was told it’s perfectly legit to sign things as R. Middle Lastname, but I’ve had to add in cramped space my first name in full. I was told it’s legit because it acknowledges my first name while making it clear that I go by my middle.
As for online forms, I don’t give a shit and so a lot of forms end up with my name as Middle F. Lastname. My current bank has no problem with this. My work has no problem with me using my middle name either, though my paystubs show first and last.
I’m content with my name now actually. I have no problems answering to either first or middle, or even initials which I started going by online (and practically all my internet friends know me as and call me though the close ones do know my real name).
Juliefoolie - That’s crazy! Nicknaming gone too far…
A question for those of you who go by Firstinitial Middlename Lastname. How do you do that on forms that only allow for one middle initial?
After a bit of deliberating, I’m thinking of possibly dropping the first name legally, but still keeping it personally, like maybe for formal situations. What do you guys think of that? For example, I can still sign my initials with three letters (Which I like) but when i sign my name I can leave off the first initial? Or is that dodgy?
'Nuther middle namer here. Wow. I had no Idea there were so many of us! I’m a little overwhelmed.
I’ve kinda told my story before. It’s actually much longer and more involved than that but at least that hits most of the high points and satisfies most of those that are curious about the guy going around in a uniform with Lucy embroidered on his shirt …
On all things legal (except payroll and things dealing with Homeland inSecurity) I use FirstInitial.MiddleInitial.LastName
My Legal signature has degenerated into an indecipherable scrible composed of my initials followed by a scriggely line, so that don’t matter much.
My bank refuses to allow just initials on the account, so I’m kinda forced to use full name. Same with Homeland inSecurity.
To everyone else, I’m Lucy.
Or Firstinitial Lucy LastName.
And, for those who still refuse to accept it, I also have to explain how this guy ended up with a name like Lucy.
I am a junior although I steadfastly refused to identify myself that way. Everyone who knew us called my father by his first name and me by my middle name. New acquaintances usually call me by my first name; now that my father is dead I know longer correct them.
My husband goes by a diminutive of his middle name, and it’s not that common of a nickname, either, causing endless confusion. What’s really weird about it, though, is that he now goes by his first name at work. He didn’t want to, but he works at a large consulting company, and since he’s working with different teams all the time, it was too difficult to keep explaining bout his name all the time. I have a tendency to forget and call him by his “real” name when I’m around his co-workers, which causes them to give me very strange looks!
I don’t have a middle name at all, which has caused trouble in the past. In JHS, I was sent to the principal’s office for refusing to tell the new teacher my middle name.The teacher was going through the class list, calling out everyone’s full names and having them identify themselves. This was causing a lot of hilarity/resentment as all the weird middle names were broadcast (“Stuart EUGENE!!!”). When my name came up, it looked like there’d been a mix-up in the office and my middle name had been left off. “Please tell me your middle name so I can record it”, and sat there, pen poised.
“I don’t have a middle name.”
“Now come on, don’t be shy, just tell me.”
“I don’t have a middle name.”
“Nobody likes their middle name but you are wasting my time here, hurry up and tell me.”
“I really don’t have a middle name.”
“ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME OR NOT?”
“I can’t tell you what I don’t have.”
And off to the office I was packed, where the secretary laughed, wrote a note and sent me back. Never got an apology. Humph.
As a kid I missed having a middle name the same as everyone else, and somehow felt lonely and left out when they were all bemoaning their horrible names. However now that I live in Japan it is very convenient because middle names are illegal here and they cause no end of trouble as there’s nowhere on any form to put the thing, yet you have to have your name recorded exactly as in your passport. My kids also have no middle name; we never had to consider it, and it made the whole process of naming them so much easier. Now as a family we all fit the same pattern (except that as a foreigner my surname is different from theirs, despite being married - sigh…)
Unless it’s something official (ie government paperwork) I just go with Middle F. Lastname.
Funny thing is, I found out my Grandma whose first name I share… well, that isn’t her first name after all. If I’d been named using her first name, it flows better with my current middle first, and there would be no confusion at all!
My SIL is named for her grandmother, but she hates the name, so she goes by her middle name. She used to use it on checks and official things as F. Middle Lastname, but I notice she isn’t doing that anymore. I think she just dropped the first name. I didn’t know that her oldest brother also uses his middle name until I read her mother’s obituary, where I noticed that her first name wasn’t listed. Of course, I know who wrote the obit.
My nephew has my grandfather’s name for a first name, which is also his father’s middle name. So he has always been called by his middle name. When his mom first registered him for school, they insisted he had to be called by his first name, to the next year, my SIL (not the one above) signed him up as F. Middle Lastname. No problem after that, I hear. That was a long time ago, so it was probably easier to do that.
Chowder, my father’s name was Clarence, but his middle name was even worse, so he used the first, but at work he used a nickname that wasn’t related to either one, which led to some confusion sometimes.
My mother found out at the wedding altar that my father was legally John Gerard, known to all and sundry (including his fiance) as Gerry. No idea how it started, but we put “John Gerard (Gerry)” on his gravestone. No one would be sure it was him otherwise.
I went by a nickname of my middle name until junior high. My mother has some convoluted explanation for calling me by my middle name, but I think they just thought my first name was too much for a baby, and they didn’t like the nickname of my first name. My middle name is old fashioned, and the nickname is worse. When I started high school, I announced that I was going to go by my first name instead. I miss it sometimes, because the name is pretty unusual these days, but it brings to mind some problematic images, so I doubt I would use it in a professional setting anyway.
Reminds me of something that happened in my old workplace.
The office manager asked another employee, by email, to use her second name as the two of them shared a forename and a similar surname. Said email was quietly ignored and as a bonus, much later we discovered that the office manager wasn’t even using her first name at all :dubious:
I call both my kids by their middle names. I didn’t intend to do it that way, but that’s how the names I chose flowed best. My mother and uncles also go by middle names, but we’re a Southern family, so there ya go.
My son (David Paul) answers to first, middle, or both names combined, and seems to switch between them all easily.
My daughter (Victoria Alexandra) went by first name at school for years, then by a diminutive of it, which I hated. Now she goes by a diminutive of her middle name, and says she doesn’t like it “because it’s a boy’s name, and everybody has it.” I’d do her name over if I could, but I still haven’t come up with the perfect girl’s name and she’s just too old now. She’ll probably change it to something I hate when she’s grown.
