I was given two Christian names (by the way, it seems more popular to use the term "forenames" or "first names" nowadays, perhaps reflecting the diversity of people's beliefs or lack of belief). The first is the name of my father's sister, a wealthy, thrice married but childless woman. It's a horrible old-fashioned name which I really dislike and I have never been called by it since birth, always being called by my second forename, however when people or institutions use a first name they always assume that your first name is the one you are called by. I was astonished when my new dentist greeted me with "Good morning, H-----". I didn't even know the woman! The same thing happened when I was in hospital and explanations had to be given by me. I told the nurses that if they were trying to resuscitate me calling me H------ they shouldn't be surprised if I didn't respond. I have "trained" my GP now, also my solicitor - these sort of folks never used to use first names when talking to their clients. What's happening?
By the way, I did inherit a good chunk of Auntie H----'s estate, but only by luck, because she crossed my brother out of her will (We split the proceeds later
). She changed her will several times towards the end, and her solicitor (who didn't call me by either my first or second forename, incidentally, but gave me my proper title) told me that I was next on the list to be crossed out, but she died suddenly before she could do this!
Slightly off the point, but still talking about names, a school friend had 3 siblings. Her father was rather forgetful, so in order to remember the order in which his children were born he gave them first names of differing lengths - the first had one syllable, the second two, and so on, for example Bill, Derek, Helena and Victoria (not their real names).
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