Being known by your middle name- just a male thing?

[peak2021]

In researching ancestry over the last few years and reading the information found out by other family members, I've noticed several male ancestors or those known in my childhood (great uncles for example) who used their middle name as their first name. There are three recent male Prime Ministers similarly (James Callaghan, Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson).

Yet I have not come across any women in my family/ancestry, nor indeed any women in public life apart from actresses. So is the use of middle names just a family quirk, or is this more widespread that only some men use middle names?

My Nan was known by her middle name, and my best friend’s younger sister.

Thank you for all your replies which I have found interesting and enlightening. A family quirk after all in my case!

My MiL goes by her middle name, so does one of my female cousins.

Quite common in my family for women to be known by their middle name.

I'm known by my middle name. I don't think it is a male thing particularly

I'm known by my middle name. I was given my Grandmother's name as the first name in memory of her but it was always intended for me to be known by the middle one.

I go by my middle name. Everyone in my family does, my mum always claimed it was a Welsh thing 🤷‍♀️

Quite a few males in my family - I guess because if you were named after your dad (more of a tradition) then you could potentially have 3 Jim’s (Jim, Jim Junior and Jim senior). Out of all us girls only one got mums name (as a middle name, last child so more of an afterthought I suppose).

Dd profers to use her middle name now and has also double barreled her surname with that of her Dad's family.
To make it more complicated its a shortened version of her middle name.

So she's Jane Margaret Jones on her birth certificate, but now goes by Maggie Jones-Smith.

So she's

A lot of babies used to be named after a relative, there’s lots of Elizabeths in my family, so they were known by their middle name to differentiate between the relatives.

Scuse the typos in my post!

My dad is known by his middle name. This was because his was a family name, but more importantly, where they lived, thr first name needed to be a Saint name when baptised. It was very common in high church families to give a name of a Saint as the first name for the baptism, with no intention of using it as the given name.

IME , woman known by their middle name chose that because they didn't like their first name, all the men I know who are known by their middle names, their parents raised them only ever using the middle name.

My dad and his sister are known by their middle names as there were already older Thomas’s and Elizabeth’s in the extended family. So to avoid confusion

Not RTFT.

This is common in Scotland. I heard it on a podcast the other day. The first name is the family name that gets passed down and the middle name gets used as the first name iyswim.

Gordon Brown has Scottish roots, Callaghan is a Scottish name and frankly Boris is a law unto himself

My grandmother was known by her middle name(a much more unusual name than her first name, people often used to add a letter to it, to make it a 'real' name!) Paul McCartney has always been known by his middle name

My great nan goes by her middle name. Can't say I blame her as her first name is Hilda

Everyone called my Nan the same name, it wasn’t until her funeral that I discovered that wasn’t actually her name!

On the male side there’s quite a few who go by their second name. Makes doing family trees quite hard!

My aunt was always known by her second middle name. My great grandmother appears nowhere in official birth records under the name she was known as (and there is nobody still alive who would know her birth name).
On DH's side, his aunt is known by her middle name, his mother uses neither of the names she was given at birth, and both grandmother's were known by middle names.

In our family we have a name (in the Victorian era) where siblings had the same name. The eldest child died very young and his brother who was born not long afterwards was given his older brothers name in memory of him

My sister is known by her middle name. It's been a total pain all her life.

Exactly the same as @RaspberryCoulis. I found it quite upsetting whenever I saw the 'wrong' name above DF's bed despite asking the staff to change it to the name he was always known by.

A colleague of mine is known by her middle name. It was her parents' preferred name, but they thought it sounded better as a middle name.

My mum and DH's mum both favour their middle names. Different generations! DH didn't realise until he had to have a very thorough security clearance through work including his parents' background.

BiL uses his middle name too. Has his dad's first name, but the middle name is better anyway.

I use my middle name as my first name is horrific.

It was tradition in years gone by for children to be named after people. It was quite the slight if you didn’t name a child after your Mum/FIL/brother/Aunt so many families used middle names so that the respect was given but the child wasn’t another Peter Jones in a family with 24 other Peter Jones’.

@MrsMoastyToasty

In our family we have a name (in the Victorian era) where siblings had the same name. The eldest child died very young and his brother who was born not long afterwards was given his older brothers name in memory of him

That was very common until quite recently. The tradition of naming after meant you called the child after the relative the original child was named for.

It’s actually a massively helpful tool when doing family research as if you spot a family who follow the traditional naming patterns except for the fact it’s not until the fourth or fifth son being called after the paternal grandfather then you know there’s another child to look for in the records.

I have one sad family tree where three babies all called after their maternal Grandmother all died in infancy. The next baby born was given a slightly different take on the name (Ellen instead of Helen) and no babies were called after the Granny again until after she herself died.