Do you use your first name, middle name, initials or a Nickname in daily life?
Anyone **only **use their last name?
I used my first name until 3rd grade. We moved out of state and I began using my middle name in my new school. I can’t recall why. But, I’ve gone by my middle name ever since. I prefer it now because my first name is too common. There’s always 4 other people in the classroom or office with my first name. I’m glad my middle name is a little more unique.
Which do you prefer?
Do you use a different name at work vs home life with friends?
I try going by my first name, which is formal. And certainly I’m called Ms. XXX in court. But if I work somewhere long enough, eventually everyone calls me by my nickname. BJ or Beej. It’s inevitable. Because I’m just not a formal person. Even in a courtroom. So now the judges and bailiffs call me BJ, when court’s not in session.
I’m the same as Beej. I almost exclusively refer to myself as “Jessica” or “Jess” but if you meet anyone outside of my family who knows me, I’ll quickly become “JJ.” Some times I go right to introducing myself as “JJ” but I do like people to know I’m part of the “Girls Born In the 70s and 80s Named Jessica Club.”
I’ve been JJ since 2nd grade and for a time I tried to avoid it but it’s been nearly 30 years - I am fine with it.
I went by one of two nicknames for the first eighteen years of my life and still do to my natal family. When I got my first real job, there were four others in the same department with that nick, so I began using my formal name and have since.
A couple of old boyfriends and my late SO had pet names for me, but they were usually used only in private.
I don’t know you -> Enforced Firstname
I don’t like you -> Enforced Firstname
I like you -> Predetermined “simple” nickname allowed
I’m friends with you -> You get to pick a nickname of your choice, excepting:
You’re my BFF/SO -> You get to have a nickname for me nobody else can use ever
My nicknames number over 50 (includes riffs on first and last names). One of my favorites is “Jack” because it has literally nothing to do with me or my real name, though.
I almost always use the shortened version of my first name. I hate the long version, and hate my last name more. For a year in college, I was called “Germ,” because I got the flu, and gave it to everyone in my rooming house.
I hate, hate, hate my first name–have since I was five–and have used a variant of my last name as my de facto first name since I was twelve. I don’t expect blood relatives to use that nickname, but the ones I get along with best – baby sister, little sister, older sister, and older brother–all use that or my middle name. Correction: my baby sister got tired of her given name in high school, and when she started college began using the same variant as her nickname, so she tends to address me as “Big Brother” or “Butta.”
I don’t actually like the whole world being on a first-name-basis with one another. To my mind, first names and nicknames are properly restricted to one’s intimates. But since the world disagrees with me, I tend to address my actual friends by last name.
For some reason, the last woman I dated before meeting my wife wanted to address my by my first name and was vaguely offended when I asked her not to.
I used first initial, middle name last name for a while, as a pretentious young author. Other than that, I’ve always used first-last. My one oddity is that I always write my name with the formal version of my first name, but am always called the diminutive. It seems odd to do it the other way around.
My dad followed the family tradition of being called by a short form of the last name until he was married - “Barb,” so to speak. I’ve only been called that irregularly.
I don’t have a middle name. It has saved me hours in filling out forms. My first name is short enough so that any nickname would be longer, which is how my parents designed it. My brother’s first name is the same, and even one letter shorter than mine.
My nickname is a version of my real name. It’s the name is use personally and professionally. I know someone doesn’t know me when he calls me by my real name – very useful for phone solicitors.
I use my first name, but a few people who knew me when I was a little kid still call me by my first and middle names (I was a double name kid). I added my middle initial to my signature when I got married to add more of “me” to the total letter count. Changing my last name was one thing, but having my signature be more him than me was a little much.
I can’t use a middle name because I don’t have one.
Never had nicknames that stuck much. “Broomstick” is the only one worth noting, and that largely because I’ve been using it on the internet since the early '90’s
I go by “Jeff”, short for “Jeffrey”, but you could probably figure that out. I lived in Alabama for a while and was surprised that down there, I’d have to correct them from spelling my full first name “Jeffery”. I figure it’s a unconscious historical Jefferson Davis reference.
I put “nickname”, but it’s actually the last syllable of my middle name. I’ve been Rick since I was born (well, Ricky, actually, until college). My mother didn’t really like either of my given names, but she was very young and acceded to the demands of the family to give me a name with at least the same initials as my fairly recently late paternal grandfather. So, she picked a non-standard diminutive of my middle name for a nickname.
My husband goes by a diminutive of his last name with eveyone but his two siblings. I use the diminutive. I go by my last name, or a diminutive of it, with probably half my social circle. Its my preferred name. The rest is evenly split between first name and diminutive.