Excellent! [tenting my fingers]
E. coli just goes with his last name, which is easier to pronounce.
One of my french teachers from Quebec (who moved to Alberta) had the first and middle names Jean Francois So-and-So. Enough english-only speaking people either weren’t sure how to pronounce it properly (which is mildly annoying) or were red-neck enough to just shrug and pronounce it quite Improperly as “Jeen-Francis” which sounds fruity for a man’s name.
So, he just went by J.F. instead. Dropping the “Jeen” and going purely by “Francis” would have made things even worse.
Well, I’ve seen it with quite a few regular folk as well.
It’s a compromise: she doesn’t want to give up who she is, but she really doesn’t want to have to deal with the old guard (read old white guys) who dismiss papers from women in the hard sciences. So it’s both the most and the least she can do.
Plus, she isn’t in love with her middle name, just using it to give the illusion so the fogies can project upon.
I spent years working in print and have probably processed thousands of business cards over the years. One thing that always made me scratch my head were those that would use something like: Robert (Bob) Smith or Terrence (Terry) Salesguy.
If the person wants to be called Bob then why not just put Bob Smith on the card and forget the Robert.
The only conclusion I & coworkers could come to was that this made them feel somewhat more self important. Or to their mind it was more ‘professional’.
To most everyone else it was just stupid.
Oh man! I go by my middle name. Ask me anything. Meanwhile, here are some of the many thoughts I’ve got on the manner:
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First: No, I don’t fully fit the OP’s criteria, as I don’t go around calling myself “F. Middlename.” I introduce myself as, and respond to, just “Middlename.” Many people that know me are not aware that they are calling me by my middle name.
That said… in the right contexts, almost all written, you might think otherwise.
I spent years listing myself as “F. Middlename Lastname” on bank accounts, credit cards, driver’s licenses, plane tickets… even on my tax returns. I also used this format on my résumé for a while, though eventually, I stripped the “F.”, as I thought it looked pretentious.
Only in the last few years – in the wake of Real ID and TSA Pre-check – have I embarked on getting myself recorded as “Firstname Middlename Lastname” in official records.
I still, invariably, sign my name “F. Middlename Lastname.”
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Second: Are we sure that T. Boone Pickens really does go by “T. Boone” in everyday life? Is this what friends and family call him? Perhaps his usage isn’t so different than mine, it’s just that he’s in the public eye. (Or perhaps not. I dunno.)
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Third: I see many folks assuming that going by one’s middle name is a choice. A preference. A conscious decision made as an adult. Certainly, this is true for some (as seen in several posts above). But for me – and I will guess for many others – this isn’t so. My parents called me by my middle name from birth. The only “choice” I made was in deciding not to change things around.
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Fourth: So why style my name as “F. Middlename Lastname” at all, even if only in formal/official/written contexts? The two best posts above that capture my motive are:
More to share if desired, but this post is already too long!
You are SO busted, F. Murray Abraham. 
One somewhat interesting one is actress Kristen Bell. Her full name is Kristen Anne Bell. She preferred her middle name so for most of her life growing up she was known to everyone as Annie Bell. But when she starting her acting career as a teenager, she apparently decided Annie Bell wasn’t a good professional name. So essentially she changed her name to her name.
Are there any other examples of somebody who stopped using a pseudonym as they became famous?
Not exactly the same, but Dwayne Johnson shifted away from a pseudonym as he went from “famous” to “very famous.” He was credited using his wresting pseudonym, “The Rock,” in his early movies (like The Scorpion King and Walking Tall), then shifted to using “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson” around 2006, and then to just “Dwayne Johnson” from 2008 on.
Similar to his cousin C. Difficile 
I’ve had multiple French-Canadian co-workers named Jean-Francois that signed emails as “JF”. I was under the impression that it’s a common abbreviation for that name.
I go by my middle name. Have since birth.
My first name is assumed to be a womans name. It’s on my official documents and that is it. Depending on the circumstances, it causes great confusion. Dunno how many times I’ll be somewhere like urgent care, they don’t see a woman in the waiting room and just stand there paralyzed. I will say are you looking for “last name.” BTW, no one in real life has ever guessed my first name in person from the initial, although the Dope figured it out within 24 hours. Nor have I ever met another male with the same first name.
I’ve been teased my entire life about having a girls name. And this includes direct managers in Global 100 companies. Shit people, grow up. I handle it better now that I’m 60 but I still feel like punching the shitheads that do this.
My middle and last name combination is pretty common. There are three of us in my corporation. Using First Initial Middle Name Last Name is what I use formally. At work I am known as middle last name. Some of our automated systems still populate with first last name, and it causes a lot of confusion.
To answer the OP, almost every case I use middle name last name. When I want to be more formal such as on my resume, book or publications, I use first initial, middle name last name. Official government documents such as passport, birth certificate and driver’s license uses my full name. Things like insurance or even some credit cards are first name, middle initial, last name (drives me nuts).
Systems are getting a bit more accommodating these days with the use of preferred name options.
And no, i’ve never seriously considered legally changing my first name
I figure “The Rock” was a pseudonym Johnson adopted as he became famous, which is common enough. As you note, there are other people who dropped a pseudonym and went back to their traditional name. John Cougar, Elvis Costello, Lil Bow Wow, and Kei$ha are a few other examples.
But Bell is the only person I can think of who was using a pseudonym in her regular life before she was not a famous person and then dropped it when she started to become famous.
On a side note, I’m not trying to imply that a person using their middle name is somehow not using their real name. I’m using the term traditional name to indicate somebody is using the first name and their last name they were given at birth as their common name and I’m using pseudonym to indicate somebody is using something else as their common name, including the use of their middle name instead of the first name they were given at birth. The awkwardness of that last sentence demonstrates why I am using these shorthand terms. If there are better terms, let me know.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s there seemed to be a trend for men to go strictly by their initials. You’ll pick up on this watching old TV shows and movies. My pop did as did many of his friends and my uncles.
My legal first name is hyphenated (Peter-Paul). When I was a kid learning to write, it was a pain in the ass to write all that as well as telling people my name. So in 2nd grade I finally said screw it and just went by Peter. Even most legal documents I have simply have me down as Peter or Pete.
A friend of mine uses his middle name. His first name is John, his second is Richard, and his third is (the fictional) Smith. He’s known to us as simply Rick. The reason he is Rick, is because his father was John also, so using Rick’s middle name avoided confusion in the family home. Naturally, Richard got shortened to Rick, so that’s how he’s known. Although legal documents, and other important things, require Rick to use another form, so he uses J. Richard Smith.
Somewhat similarly, does anybody sign their name using their first initial and last name, such as ABloggs (say, for Albert Bloggs)? I’ve done that for at least forty years. I do have a first name, and even a middle one, but ABloggs just rolls off the pen, as it were. No authority seems to mind, as that’s how my passport is signed, my driver’s licence is signed, and all legal documents have been signed.
I should have been clearer in the OP, but I only meant in written form. I don’t know anyone who would actually use it verbally, which is why it never occurred to me.
All the French guys I work with who have a hyphenated first name — a Jean-Marc, two Jean-Claudes, a Paul-Louis — will casually sign emails with the relevant initials: JM, JC, etc.
The exception is a guy whose given name is Jean-Luc. He insists on going by Luc because he’s tired of the Trek jokes.
I had a coworker (a fairly high level executive) who “retired” a couple of years ago, who went by E. Jerome Endwell (all three made up to protect the guilty) in written form. His legal first name is technically unisex but in the USA is almost exclusively female. That’s the way he wrote it. He just went by Jerry. Everyone knew what the E stood for.
Do French-Canadians (or Canadians, for that matter) even have middle names, as opposed to additional given names? I was under the impression that middle names designated as such were exclusively an US thing, and that the rest of the Western world, when a child is given more than one name, considers them additional given names.