Using middle names as first names?

[EeyoreBlue]

Hi All

This thread reminded me of my own struggles with finding people.  Whilst researching my grandmothers family I came across as similar incident.  There were 22 years between my grandmother and her eldest sister.  I was told my aunt was called Daisy, but couldn't find her anywhere.  It then transpired that Daisy was a nickname, and her real name was Josephine.  Brilliant I thought - I'll be able to find her now.  But no, I came up against brick wall after brick wall.  She didn't have the same surname as my gran, she didn't have her mother's maiden name so what did she have?  I solved the mystery by going back a generation.  I couldn't find a marriage for my GGrandmother to my GGrandfather, but eventually I did find a marriage where the firstnames were correct.  It turned out my GGrandmother had been married previously, and widowed very young.  "Daisy" was from her first marriage, so the confusion not only stemmed from the fact that she was known by a completely different first name, but that no-one knew her surname.  Also difficult as she was living with an uncle and aunt and not her mother on the census.

I'm having a similar problem with the other side of my family - guess the only thing is to keep plugging away and hope for the best!

EeyoreBlue

[Siamese Girl]

I always wanted to dump my first name which is Carole and use my second which I prefer, but I have never succeeded in doing it. I think its too late now 

Carole

[Nick29]

My father never used his first name, because he hated it, but I hadn't realised that his parents didn't use it either.  His name was Horace George, named after his mother's brother, and even when my father was only 3, they had dropped the Horace, and named him as George on the census.  I think the dropping of the name by his parents may have had something to do with my father's Uncle Horace George emigrating to Australia, never to be seen by the family again ! 

My father did, however, always use his first name on official documents.

[sarahsean]

Both my father , grandmother and grandfather used their middle names as their first names.

When my grandmother died i was amazed to learn her name has actually Ivy as we had always known her as Lena which turned out to be her second name.

My father used his second middle name Lawrence instead of his first name Leslie.

His father used his second name Bob instead of his first name Herbert.


This thread reminds me of a funny incident which happens at school, we had a different teacher for a lesson one day and she was taking the register and called out Caroline H and no one answered. She asked again when a girl named Rosie answered "Oh sorry that is me!"  Turns out her name was Caroline Rose but she always went by the name Rosie.

My husbands uncle was named Felix an old family name but he hated it and changed his name to Joe.  My mother in law said it was strange when it happened as she had been so used to calling him Felix and then had to get used to calling him Joe.

My husbands brothers are also known as Bob and Jamie instead of their full names of Robert and James.

Whatever suits you i guess but unless you know it does make it harder for us family historians.  Luckily i was named after my two great grandmothers so it made things easier for me!!

Regards
Sarah

[sallysmum]

Like most in this thread - I also have my fair share!  I have twin second cousins who are named Edna Ann and Ethel  Cath.  The first names were after aunts of theirs.  However they were never known by these 1st names.  I asked her why that was but didn't really get a satisfactory answer!  I wondered why bother naming children thus if the parents didn't want to use the chosen names!

Then there was great aunt Maud, or Maud in America as she was known to us.  Maud died nearly 30 years before I was born and she was the only one of grandma's 6 siblings that I had heard of.  Thus when I couldn't find her on the census I didn't know where to look.  I finally found her staying with her aunt.  She was under her full name - Elizabeth Alice Maud.  So Maud wasn't even her 2nd name - it was her 3rd name!  Her daughter, Alice in America as she was known to us, it appears that her name was Elizabeth Alice.  So she was following on with her mother's tradition!

sallysmum

[FosseWay]

My great-grandmother's name was Emily Caroline Ethel, but for some reason, for her whole life, she used the name Ethel.  I'd often wondered why, with two other very nice given names, she had to go for the "Ethel" option...then I found her on the 1891 census, aged 9, called Ethel    She had two aunts named Emily and Caroline, and her mother and both grandmothers were also called Caroline, so I supposed it was the practical option!

My great-grandmother, her mother, grandmother and numerous cousins/nieces of all three didn't care for the practical approach your Ethel took. At this point in my ancestry I start to wade through a sea of Charlottes. Not only are those three direct ancestors Charlotte, but several of their brothers married Charlottes and/or had daughters named Charlotte. Some of them had middle names (my great-grandmother was Charlotte Elizabeth) but didn't feel the need to reduce other people's confusion by using them!

[EdCan]

I have one with three given names.The only record of the proper name is the birth reg.All the rest of the records show him with two in any combination of the three.

[Cell]

Hi,
My hubby is known by his middle name   ever since he was a baby . He has  never been called by his first name, or used it  - His first name is just there on his birth reg  (  basically doing nothing).
 My father's  the same- known by his middle name since birth just like my hubby except for  two different reasons. My father was called by his second name from birth because his father had the same name. My husband was called by his second name from birth because the parents preferred that name to the one they had given to him for a first name.

It wasn't their choice, but the choice of their parents, and not the dislike for the names by the child itself - They've just never been called by their first names - Their second names are their first names.

My grandfather ( paternal side), My great Uncle (paternal side) , My great grandmother ( maternal side)  were all were known by their middle names from birth to name just a few from the top of my head from the many  of my lot  who used their middle names since birth.

My great uncle married and died  under hs middle name, My great grandmother too - it was  and is perfectly legal.

I would think  it's a pretty common  occurence in many families

Kind regards

[Darwin]

I always wanted to dump my first name which is Carole and use my second which I prefer, but I have never succeeded in doing it. I think its too late now 

Carole

It's never too late - why not start here and sign yourself with your 2nd name.