Using middle names as first names?

[kojak]

Has anyone else encountered many instances where relatives have used their middle names as first names throughout their lives? Two of my paternal great-aunts went my middle names, as did two sisters who were cousins of theirs. I must say, it can make researching people extremely confusing!

I would assume that they were known by their middle names because the child displayed a dislike for their actual first name, but that's refuted by the fact I have many comments on photos were children are referred to by their middle names as babies/toddlers!

Hi,

Yes.  This is very common indeed.  For example I have never been known by my first name.  Only my middle name.  In researching my wife's family history we even found an ancestor who wasn't known by his birth name of Thomas William Smith, but instead was known as William Stanton ! Yes I know what you will all be thinking, not the same man.  Wrong !  The exact same man (as his attestation papers revealed Thomas William Smith was previously known as William Stanton) Madness and just another hazard we all face when researching.  So, next time you are looking up a long lost Great ancestor called John, William or Thomas, don't completely dismiss a man of the same age, from the same town who happened to called Derek !!!  LOL. 

Good luck to all ye fellow researchers,

Kenny and Jane and Megbabalicious

[justmej]

A cousin of mine was given the same first two 'family' names that I already had, but has never been known by her first name and instead uses a shortened version of our middle name.  I think mum's objection at the time may have had something to do with that!

justmej

[Icicle]

I blame my primary school teacher 

I have a hyphenated christian name and it was always used, even though it is a bit of a mouthful, until I started school. The teacher declared it "too long" and shortened me down to the second part. That is how I have been known ever since.

The only documents that I appear in full are my birth and marriage certs and my passport. Oh, and my family tree of course 

[Scales]

I have 2 Aunts who are sisters called Peg and Margaret..... I always wondered why Peg which is normally short for Margaret had a sister also called Margaret.

It only when I stared my research did I find out that Peg was actually called Lilian May !!!

My grandfather who was their brother was Frederick Charles known as Charlie

[coombs]

I have a Thomas John Roberts born in 1813 who died in 1889 as John Thomas Roberts.

My nans brother was George Henry John Stock but was known as Henry throughout his life. And a James Thomas Cornwell who was always known as Thomas.

[mongojoby]

My Grandma tried to trace her uncle back in the late 1970s (he had emigrated to Canada in the 1920s, and she had lost contact with him some time before).  As far as she was aware he was called James (the only name he was known as within the family was Jim), so when she was ringing up Candian telephone boards trying to find him again that was the name she asked for.  When she was told there were no J's/ James' with his surname she just presumed he had died by then.

However when I started getting into family history a few years ago, and found the only matching birth registration online, I discovered James was infact his middle name (his first name being the same as his father).  I subsquently found him in all the local telephone directories under his full name, along with his death, obituary and burial records for him from the mid 80s.  He definitely carried on being a Jim though- the obituary of a friend he was buried with mentions him.

It was such a shame that something like that stopped my Grandma finding him, although she was pleased to discover he had lived to a good age.

[Redroger]

I was called by my second name at school which was my father's first name, and caused a little confusion in the family. Once I left school the practice soon stopped. It is nothing though to what happened to my mother, Emily Hannah Maud, she was known throughout her life as Jim, and she was almost 100 when she died. The reason was this: Her uncle my grandfather's brother migrated to Australia in 1903 unaccompanied at the age of 14. Mum was expected, but unborn, on his departure her uncle said to her father "If the baby's a boy, call him Jim after me". She wasn't a boy, but she was still called Jim!

[coombs]

Did you grandfathers brother remain in Australia or did he return home?

My great grandmother was Catherine Isabella but was sometimes known as Bella.

[danuslave]

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!


"If the baby's a boy, call him Jim after me"

I think these two quotes sum up what happened in a lot of cases.

If unmarried Uncle Hubert is the only one in the family with a little money and promises to leave some to your son if you name him Hubert, what are most people going to do?

If you like the name Hubert all well and good.  If you don't, you name the child Hubert Derek and call him Derek (except when Uncle Hubert is within earshot)

Similarly, if you've got a pushy granny who says 'all first born sons in our family have been called Thomas', you would have to be quite strong to go against her.  Particularly if you happened to be living with her at the time.

Heaven help the families with 2 pushy grannies.   

Linda