People preferring their middle name, and then changing their middle name to be

[ScouseBoy]

How Common is it for people to prefer their middle name to their first name, and then reverse the order?

[rachelralph]

my grandmothers 3rd husband (yes 3rd  and shes still going through them!) had the name john harry at birth. unfortuanltly he had a brother john james and his father was john also. so john harry was known as harry, john james was james and john sr was john.

after the death of his brother john harry became john 2 and john sr was john 1! then when john harrys father john 1 died john harry became harry again as he didnt want to use his desceased fathers name!!

so i would say it could be quite common!

[RedMystic]

It's very common with the men in my family. Don't know why - glad I had a daughter. 

[Marmalady]

My grandmother was Alice Dorothy but always known as Dorothy

Censuses and other documents are in either name and only rarely show both names

I myself went through a phase of using my middle name in my twenties ( to avoid confusion at work where there was already many others with the same first name). I now use a shortened version of my first name

[groom]

My grandmother was Alice Gertrude but was always known as Gertie. In fact it wasn't until her funeral that I actually discovered that her name was Alice. Why she preferred Gertie to Alice I don't know. 

[DeeBoneham]

my grandmothers 3rd husband (yes 3rd  and shes still going through them!) had the name john harry at birth. unfortuanltly he had a brother john james and his father was john also. so john harry was known as harry, john james was james and john sr was john.

after the death of his brother john harry became john 2 and john sr was john 1! then when john harrys father john 1 died john harry became harry again as he didnt want to use his desceased fathers name!!

so i would say it could be quite common!

Thats a cracking story and as you say could well be very common. Frederick is the one in our family that keeps reoccuring...

[busybod]

My Grandad was John Richard, but known all his life as Dick. His daughter (my Aunt) was Doris Margaret but known all her life as Margaret. Like an earlier posting, it wasn't until her funeral that I knew that her real name was Doris.

[mshrmh]

Also pretty common in the more recent generations of my family to be known by the middle name (especially if the first name is that of a parent). I can only think of a couple of people where the order of the names has changed between certificates or censuses (though the latter often only has the name used rather than both).

[Marmalady]

another example in my family tree

My 3x gr grandmother always showed up on censuses and death cert as Maria.

When i finally tracked down her marriage - she was named as Judith Maria

From there it was only a few minutes work to find her baptism - as Judith with no mention of Maria at all

Where & when she adopted the name of Maria will probably never be known