# Why is it common in some cultures to go by a given name other than your first one? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-common-in-some-cultures-to-go-by-a-given-name-other-than-your-first-one/930350 "2021-01-12T18:42:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 3
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-common-in-some-cultures-to-go-by-a-given-name-other-than-your-first-one/930350/3 "2021-01-12T20:13:27Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Not that I’m aware of, and it’s very common for people in the US and Britain to go by their middle names as well- think of all the people with an initial and a name- F. Murray Abraham, G. Gordon Liddy, C. Montgomery Burns, etc… Or people who just go by their middle names- Will Ferrell, Ashton Kutcher, Paul McCartney, Bruce Willis, Rudyard Kipling, Ross Perot, etc… > > I think it’s just a matter of personal choice pretty much everywhere; some people just DO NOT like their given first names. There certainly are and have been many people who go by their middle names in the English-speaking world, but some of the examples with the first initial are rather old hand have to do with a practice common in the past among the up-and-coming sort to publicly initialize your first name but not your middle name, which was a surname that could have been an old family name (e.g. your mother’s name). For example, at the start of the comic Blondie, the name of her husband Dagwood’s filthy rich father was J. Bolling Bumstead. Do you really think his parents, his wife, etc. called him “Bolling” at home? More likely John, Jim or Jake. Similarly, the fox in Disney’s “Pinocchio”, who is portrayed as a used car or snake oil saleseman type, is called “Honest John”, but also (in some derived material) “J. Worthington Foulfellow”. Basically, it’s one monicker for one class of people, but another one for another. As a not unrelated example, US President Woodrow Wilson’s first name was Thomas and was referred to as Tommy by his parents. He apparently thought Woodrow more impressive for public life. Maybe for the same reason, an earlier president, Stephen Grover Cleveland, dropped his first name in adulthood. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-common-in-some-cultures-to-go-by-a-given-name-other-than-your-first-one/930350)._