Going by one's middle name: why such a pain?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

MLAW are my initials. All the girls on my mother side have a first name of Marie so as far as I’m concerned my first name is actually Lynn. To add insult to injury I have two addresses (live in the boonies): a post office box where I actually receive my mail and a street address (for 911 purposes).

Well, try explaining this to the licence bureau.

Argument number 1: LYNN IS my first name, it appears on all documents. Revenue Canada has no problem with it.
Compromise: name appears as M. Lynn … on licence. Ticks me off, but what can you do.

Argument number 2: PO Box ### is where I get my mail. “Well, mam, the licence must indicate where you physically reside”. OK, fine … just don’t mail me anything because I’ll never get it.
Case in point: my husband’s licence was suspended (unpaid ticket … which was mailed to him … duh!) and he never recieved the registered letter telling him this news. Not until the insurance company threatened to revoke our insurance were we even aware of this fact.
Compromise: both addresses appear on the license.

22

Well, I too am a middle name man. My first name is the innevitably boring “John”. I actually went by it until I was 16 when I became “You” to my Rocky Horror friends. It was great introducing myself, “Hi, I’m You but you are not me.” :slight_smile: Anyway, I tried to change to my middle name back in Texas, but too many people knew me. Once someone would hear the “John” being spoken predominantly by longer termed friends, I innevitably became John again. Well, now I don’t have that problem. Everyone calls me Ellis (my middle name). Oh, I always fill out official things with my first name for the prestated reason that it helps me identify those pesky telemarketers and such. Having Ellis as my name of choice has developed some problems. Several people think I am either Alice (don’t know why they think my parents would be evil enough to give me a girls name) or Alex. They can usually get that my name starts with an “E” after a simple spelling and the ones that don’t I assume have some mental incapabilities that prohibit them from saying that letter or any of its derrivatives. Oh, I wanted to use my middle name because my first and last name are the ultimate in boring. Yes, John Ellis ______ is boring. My last name is as common as Smith and Jones but it is not either of those. People usually are able to guess my first and last name within three tries. YUCK! To quote Schoolhouse Rock’s Rufus Xaviar Sarsparilla song, “How common!”

HUGS!
Sqrl

Gasoline: As an accompaniement to cereal it made a refreshing change. Glen Baxter

23

My pet peeve is what happens to people with a two-word first name. Lots of computers and clerks can’t conceive of, or deal with, a first name that has a space in it, and the second word of the first name becomes a middle name, often reduced to a middle initial.

My sister’s first name is Ann Marie, and she tries to enter it that way on forms whenever possible, but it still comes back on paperwork, more often than not, as “Ann M. ______.” AAAARGH! Marie is NOT her middle name!

24

Ah yes, how well it works, too! Actually, I don’t go by my real name at all, but I do use it for bill, etc.

There was a time several years back when I was in extremely bad financial straits and none of the collection people ever actually reached me, because the uh… the babysitter (yeah, that’s it) the babysitter answered the phone every time…

StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
I Spy Ty.

25

Irishman: I always thought it weird that “William” was shortened to “Bill” - never made sense to me.

Like Robert/Bob or Richard/Dick.

I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright
I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush